Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era teases a roguelike mode as it hits 1 million sales

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era early access — (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era's strategy of building on the series' peak—the 1999 classic HoMM 3—has paid off. In a single day it broke even, shifting 250,000 copies. And in less than a month it managed to climb up to 1 million.

That's a heck of an achievement for the new game in a series that largely seemed to have been forgotten by owner Ubisoft—HoMM 5 came out in 2006, and since then it's been left alone.

It's definitely earned its popularity. As I said in my Olden Era early access impressions, it's not some wild reinvention, it's simply riffing on the best version of HoMM, giving the vets what they've always wanted: a return to the good old days of HoMM 3. But at the same time, this isn't a remaster or remake—there are new ideas here, with big changes introduced to the magic system and the addition of some fancy new modes.

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Speaking of new modes, there are more coming. To celebrate the 1 million sales milestone, Unfrozen and publisher Hooded Horse have shown off a roadmap detailing what's to come as the game makes its way through early access.

There's some good stuff coming this year, like teamplay and observer modes, along with replays, class reworks and a hero skill rebalance, but the meaty parts will be coming closer to the end of early access and beyond. That's when we'll get things like a thieves guild, underground terrain and, perhaps not that surprisingly, a roguelike mode.

This new PvE mode is still a bit of a mystery, unfortunately, with Unfrozen promising "more information later". But it's an exciting prospect all the same. The only issue with Olden Era hewing so close to HoMM 3 is that the veterans have done it all before. But the last time we got a HoMM, roguelikes weren't really a thing (yes I know Rogue came out in 1980).

So I'm genuinely excited to see this very '90s game get a very '26 mode.

The good news is that if you can't wait for it to hit 1.0, the early access version is already brilliant—and pretty full-featured too. The campaign only has a single act at the moment, and higher-tier magic and monsters are yet to come, but none of that has stopped it from feeling like a return to greatness for the series.

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Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.