Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is Unfrozen's turn-based fantasy strategy game, the official prequel of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, in Steam Early Access on Windows since Apr 30, 2026, published by Hooded Horse with Ubisoft. It is set on the continent of Jadame with six factions; 1.0 has no announced date.

0:49 Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is Unfrozen's turn-based fantasy strategy game, the official prequel of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, in Steam Early Access on Windows since Apr 30, 2026, published by Hooded Horse with Ubisoft, which owns the series. It is set on the continent of Jadame in the world of Enroth with six Factions: Temple, Necropolis, Dungeon, Hive, Grove and Schism. You lead heroes across an adventure map, build up towns, recruit armies and fight turn-based battles on a hex grid, alone, against friends or in ranked matchmaking. Unfrozen has not announced a date for 1.0, the full release (1.0 Release Date). The footage, from IGN's Early Access review, shows a hero crossing a red-leafed adventure map, a battle on a hex grid and a battle in the desert.

The game logo beneath four portraits in a round frame (a woman with snakes for hair, a pale woman with a halo, a green goblin and a blue-skinned undead) against a starry sky of constellations, in Unfrozen's press kit for Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era. Unfrozen

Quick facts

Buy	Steam, Microsoft Store (Game Preview, in PC Game Pass)
Early Access	Apr 30, 2026, on Steam, the Microsoft Store and PC Game Pass
Price	$39.99 on Steam, 25% off at $29.99 until Oct 24, 2026
Developer	Unfrozen
Publishers	Hooded Horse with Ubisoft (Ubisoft owns Heroes of Might and Magic)
Platform	Windows PC only; no console version announced
Modes	Campaign (Act 1), scenarios, Classic, Single Hero and Arena, single player and multiplayer, ranked, hotseat, Alliances
Factions	Temple, Necropolis, Dungeon, Hive, Grove, Schism
Latest version	v0.81.04 (Oct 2, 2026); public beta v0.82.03 (Oct 21, 2026)
Steam reviews	Very Positive, 23,557 reviews (Oct 21, 2026)
Copies sold	Over 1,000,000 on Steam by May 28, 2026
1.0	Not announced as of Oct 21, 2026

What Olden Era is

Olden Era is a new, official entry in Heroes of Might and Magic, the turn-based strategy series New World Computing began in 1995, and the first new Heroes game in more than ten years, as Unfrozen put it when it dated Early Access. Steam's store page calls it "the official prequel" of the series. Its name, Unfrozen's first FAQ explains, means two things: a return to the classic world and lore of Enroth, and "classic" play built on the mechanics of Heroes 2 and Heroes 3 (FAQ, Aug 30, 2024).

The loop is the one the series is known for. Heroes carry armies across a map full of mines, creature dwellings, treasure and guarded artifacts (Adventure Map); towns produce gold and creatures every week; and every clash with a guard or an enemy hero turns into a turn-based battle. Olden Era adds Faction Laws, subskills, a researchable Mage Guild, a Grail that has to be won, and online play with matchmaking, profiles and a ladder, which Unfrozen called a first for the series (Devlog #1). New players should start with the Beginner's Guide.

A torn-parchment patch of map in full color: a beach and sea at the top left, a castle on the left, rivers, gray mountain peaks and scattered buildings and treasure. A green arrow leads from a mounted hero. The bottom bar shows the portrait of Leon Sticky-Fingers with three creature stacks, the top bar lists resources starting at 15000 gold, and the right column holds hero and town buttons. — The adventure map with the hero Leon Sticky-Fingers selected, a green movement path, rivers, mountains, mines and a castle, on day 1 of week 1 of month 1, in an official Steam store screenshot of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era. Unfrozen

Jadame and the story

Olden Era returns to Enroth, the world of the first three Heroes games, and goes to Jadame, "a mysterious continent in turmoil, never before explored in the main Heroes of Might and Magic series" (Unfrozen, Aug 22, 2024). Jadame had only been visited in the Might and Magic role-playing games, and Unfrozen places Olden Era "centuries before the events of the RPG game Might and Magic VIII" (Devlog #15, Apr 24, 2026).

The Campaign is one story that takes in every faction. Jadame is "threatened by a mysterious new demonic power", and the rulers of Dungeon try to build a defensive alliance with the other factions, "but it's not easy, as everyone seems to hold a grudge against someone" (FAQ). Unfrozen's own game page describes the enemy as the Hive, "a swarm of insectoids led by an Inferno demon lord", whom the developers have not named. Early Access holds Act 1; Acts 2 and 3 are planned for 1.0 (roadmap).

The six factions

Three factions return and three are new to the series (Devlog #13, Aug 29, 2025). Each has seven tiers of creatures, and every creature has a base form and two upgrades to choose between (Creatures); neutral creatures such as the Tier 8 Lich Dragon wander the map (Neutral Creatures). Which one to pick is the subject of Best Faction.

Faction	What it is	Faction skill
Temple	Knights, griffins and angels who worship the Sun	Righteousness (shown as Ascension in Devlog #11)
Necropolis	Undead and vampires of the Necromancers' Guild	Necromancy
Dungeon	The Alvar Pact of dark elves, minotaurs and dragons	Triumvirate's Strength
Hive	A demon-worshipping insect cult, the story's villain	Summon Swarm
Grove	Fey and elemental creatures of Murmurwoods	Murmuring
Schism	Altered elves and eldritch creatures from the Abyss	Abyssal Communion

Grove was announced as "Sylvan" and renamed before its reveal in 2025, and Schism was the secret sixth faction, revealed on Aug 21, 2025 as one "built around unavoidable damage and ability control" (Unfrozen). Necropolis was rebuilt before launch, with new Dread Knights and a Necromancy that turns the strongest enemy stack into new undead of the same tier (Necropolis update, Feb 2, 2026).

Heroes, laws and magic

Each faction has 18 playable Heroes outside the campaign (FAQ Part 2, Dec 6, 2024), "over a hundred unique heroes" in the store's words. Heroes level up in the classic way, but every skill has five subskills: at Advanced you pick one of the first three and at Expert one of the last two, and a hero holds eight Skills at most (Devlog #11). Picking the right skills unlocks one of two optional subclasses per hero class.

0:54 Faction Laws are Olden Era's biggest new system: a technology tree for your starting faction, bought with Seals earned from Law points that come from fighting guards, capturing dwellings and town halls (Devlog #14, Dec 5, 2025). Unfrozen's Early Access launch trailer shows the law tree as a parchment of shield icons in tiers, then the star chart where towns' Astrology Points unlock global spells. Laws boost creature tiers, the economy or heroes, or grant tricks such as Temple building twice a day in its towns.

Magic and Spells has four schools: Daylight, Nightshade, Primal and Arcane. Anyone can learn spells of tiers 1 and 2, the higher tiers need the school's skill, and once a day a Mage Guild can research a missing spell for resources, so the randomness of the guild can be paid away (Devlog #10, Jun 13, 2025). Unfrozen claims "more spells than any other Heroes game". Artifacts come in common, rare, epic and legendary grades with flexible sets, and The Grail is won by beating a stronger copy of your own hero at a Mirage, then built as a Grail Sanctuary in any town (Devlog #12).

Combat

Combat is fought on a hex grid with an orthographic camera, as in the classic games, but almost every creature and hero has active abilities. A shared resource, Focus, fills as units attack and take damage and pays for abilities; ranged units have unlimited shots, with a penalty that grows with distance (FAQ Part 2). The battlefield was enlarged and given a zoom after the demo (Community Feedback #4, Mar 6, 2026), and you can quick-finish a battle whose result is clear or let auto-combat play it.

Damage is being changed. At launch the attack and defense multiplier was (20 + Attack) / (20 + Defense); the public beta of Oct 15, 2026 replaces it with a formula based on the difference between the two, worth 4% for the first point (beta notes). The beta is not on the main branch yet (Balance Update Beta).

Modes and multiplayer

Painted art split by color: on the left, under storm clouds and lightning, skeletons with glowing green eyes and a dark rider with a scythe charge. On the right, in sunlight, a blonde elf on a white stag, dryads and leafy warriors meet them. In the background a white castle stands on a green plain with a red dragon in the sky. — A painting of an undead army, led by an armored rider with a scythe, clashing with elven warriors and a rider on a stag before a white castle with a dragon circling above it, on Unfrozen's official Olden Era page. Unfrozen

Olden Era has three ways to play a map (Game Modes):

Classic: several heroes, towns and the whole map, as in earlier Heroes games.
Single Hero: one hero whose death means defeat, on templates with more dwellings; Unfrozen recommends it to first-timers (Devlog #2).
Arena: a draft of a hero, skills, artifacts, spells and an army in about five minutes, then a single battle (Devlog #5).

All three can be played alone or online, and each has its own matchmaking, ranked play and leaderboard; hotseat on one PC, a template-based Random Map Generator, scenarios, puzzle challenges and a pre-release Map Editor were in from the first day (Unfrozen, Apr 30, 2026), and the generator has offered over 50 templates since. Team play came on Sep 30, 2026 as Alliances, co-op or team against team with simultaneous turns and resource trading, together with a fully random map generator (Roadmap Patch). The first large hand-made map, The Mysterious Island, arrived on Aug 20, 2026. More on online play is in Multiplayer.

Early Access and the road to 1.0

Olden Era has been in Early Access since Apr 30, 2026. Unfrozen's Early Access answers on Steam say "We plan to remain in Early Access for a year, but that could change depending on how the design develops with player feedback", and "We might increase the price during the Early Access period" (Steam, read Oct 21, 2026).

The Early Access Roadmap of May 28, 2026 has four stages: team play, a better random map generator, a hero skills rebalance and an emote wheel in Q3 2026 (delivered on Sep 30); a matchmaking rework, an elite class rework, Observer Mode and replays, and a rebalance of alternative upgrades in Q4 2026; then the underground layer, a Thieves' Guild, Tier 8 neutrals and more over "all the time left in Early Access"; and finally 1.0 with campaign Acts 2 and 3 and a PvE Roguelike Mode (roadmap). No date, quarter or year for 1.0 has been announced as of Oct 21, 2026. Vi.ki's best guess is about Apr 2027, a year after Early Access began, and it is only a guess.

Updates since launch

Unfrozen patches often: Patch #1 came a day after launch and Patch #14 on Sep 3, 2026, with hotfixes between (Patch Notes). The early patches weakened the AI on Easy and Normal (Patch #2, May 2, 2026) and added a "Moderate" difficulty (Patch #6, May 13) (Difficulty and AI). Later ones reworked skills (Patch #8, Jun 1) and Necromancy (Patch #11, Jul 6), and added The Mysterious Island (Patch #13, Aug 20) and the custom map Broken Alliance (Patch #14, Sep 3).

The Roadmap Patch, v0.81.02, brought Alliances and the Advanced Random Map Generator on Sep 30, 2026, and the hotfix v0.81.04 of Oct 2 is the current main version. Since Oct 15, 2026 the "biggest balance update since Early Access" has been on a public beta branch: the new damage formula, a smarter adventure map AI, the neutral creatures Mummy and Kitsune, the skill First Aid and new artifacts, with a second beta build on Oct 21 (beta). Unfrozen says it will announce the release date for the main game after testing; until then none of it is in the game most players run.

Reception and sales

Critics and players liked it. Reviews gave it an OpenCritic Top Critic Average of 83, with 80% of critics recommending it (read Oct 21, 2026), and IGN's Jarrett Green gave the Early Access version 7 out of 10. Steam players rate it "Very Positive": 20,406 of 23,557 reviews are positive (Oct 21, 2026). Metacritic shows no Metascore, because its reviews are marked Early Access.

It sold 250,000 copies on Steam in its first 24 hours, enough, Unfrozen said, to break even on its development costs in one day, then 500,000 in under 72 hours and over 1,000,000 on Steam by May 28, 2026. Players online peaked at about 60,000 over the launch weekend, per SteamDB as Unfrozen cited it. These counts are Steam only and leave out PC Game Pass.

Development

0:00 Unfrozen, founded in 2016 and known for Iratus: Lord of the Dead, made a demo in 2020 and pitched a new Heroes game to Ubisoft, which agreed in 2021 (Designing a Heroes Game, Aug 29, 2024). Ubisoft revealed Olden Era at Gamescom on Aug 22, 2024, with Early Access then planned for the first half of 2025; its announce trailer proclaims "the return of a legendary series" and "a new strategic tale" over battle footage and ends on "Wishlist now on Steam" beside Ubisoft's logo. It slipped to later in 2025 (Unfrozen, Jun 13, 2025) and then to 2026, when a free demo came out on Oct 9, 2025 (Unfrozen). Hooded Horse joined as publisher alongside Ubisoft on Jul 1, 2025 (Unfrozen), and Might and Magic's creator Jon Van Caneghem became an honorary creative advisor on Jan 29, 2026 (Unfrozen). The music is by the series composer Paul Romero with Cris Velasco (Unfrozen). The whole story is in Development History.

Olden Era and Heroes 3

Ubisoft said at the reveal that Olden Era draws on Heroes of Might and Magic 3, the series' best-loved game, and Unfrozen calls Heroes 3's "core gameplay loop" "a cornerstone of Olden Era", while insisting "Olden Era is not a remake of any previous chapters" (Devlog #15). Faction Laws, subskills, Focus, the Arena, Single Hero mode and Alliances are new; the underground and the Thieves' Guild, which Heroes 3 had, are still to come. The comparison is in Olden Era and Heroes 3, and Heroes 3 has a viki of its own at https://heroes3.vi.ki/.

Frequently asked questions

Is Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era out? Yes, in Early Access. Olden Era came out on Steam and on the Microsoft Store as a Game Preview on Apr 30, 2026, and is fully playable; the 1.0 full release is still to come.

When is Olden Era 1.0 coming out? Unfrozen has not announced a date as of Oct 21, 2026. It plans to stay in Early Access for about a year from Apr 30, 2026, so Vi.ki's best guess is about Apr 2027, but that is not announced.

Is Olden Era on Game Pass? Yes. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has been in PC Game Pass since its Early Access launch on Apr 30, 2026, as a Game Preview in the Microsoft Store on Windows.

Is Olden Era on PS5, Xbox or Switch? No. Olden Era is on Windows PC only, and no console version has been announced as of Oct 21, 2026.

How many factions does Olden Era have? Six: Temple, Necropolis, Dungeon, Hive, Grove and Schism. Unfrozen has said only that it is "considering" more factions through possible DLC later.

Is Olden Era multiplayer? Yes. Olden Era has online play with ranked matchmaking in Classic, Single Hero and Arena, hotseat on one PC, and since Sep 30, 2026 co-op and team play through Alliances.

Is Olden Era a remake of Heroes 3? No. Unfrozen says Olden Era "is not a remake of any previous chapters"; it is a new game set before the earlier ones, built around Heroes 3's core loop with new systems such as Faction Laws.

How much does Olden Era cost? Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era costs $39.99 on Steam, and was 25% off at $29.99 until Oct 24, 2026; there is one edition and no DLC.