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Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Roundup at the Hooded Horse Summer Sale
Hooded Horse looks back on a busy few weeks for Olden Era: the reveal of the early access roadmap, the announcement of the Mysterious Island PvE map (whose creator is joining Unfrozen as Level Designer), and three content patches. Patch #8 delivered a large balance pass across skills, spells and creatures plus exploit fixes; Patch #9 followed up with targeted tweaks and bug fixes; Patch #10 added saved tactics-phase formations and revamped unit-movement visuals. The game is also 25% off during the Hooded Horse Summer Sale.
Olden Era — Patch #10: Tactics Phase Formation Saving & Bug Fixes
Patch #10 (v0.80.24) adds saved unit formations for the tactics phase, along with a long list of bug fixes and one temporary balance change. Full breakdown on our patch notes page.
Upcoming PvE Content: The Mysterious Island
Unfrozen has announced that The Mysterious Island, one of the most popular PvE maps for Heroes of Might and Magic III, is coming to Olden Era. The map was inspired by Jules Verne's novel and created by the community mapmaker Papyjama, who is joining the studio as its new Level Designer. The announcement comes as the team continues work on its roadmap features such as Teamplay and the Advanced Random Map Generator, and it directly answers repeated community calls for more single-player and cooperative PvE content.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era – PC Preview
Thumb Culture's preview praises the campaign, skirmish and multiplayer modes for faithfully recreating the old-school turn-based hex formula, with city building and hero progression working well together once past a steep early learning curve. The review criticizes an unintuitive, dated interface with inconsistent left/right-click controls, and finds the strategic depth, diplomacy and combat customization thinner than genre peers like Age of Wonders 4 or Total War: Warhammer II. Overall verdict remains positive, calling the game enjoyable and recommendable despite some repetitiveness.
Olden Era — Patch #9: Hotfix & Balance Adjustments
A quick hotfix following Patch #8. After reviewing early data and player feedback, Unfrozen rolls back and re-tunes several balance changes that proved too strong in Single Hero mode, and brings forward some planned faction improvements. The update also fixes a number of bugs, including issues introduced by Patch #8. Full details are on our patch notes page.
Olden Era — Patch #8: Skills Rework, Balance Pass & Exploit Fixes
A major patch reworking the Murmuring expert subskills and fully overhauling Summon Avatar into a purely magical ability, alongside broad balance changes to creatures, artifacts, map templates and matchmaking. Unfrozen also closes several serious exploits (Alt+F4 disconnects, tactics-phase peeking, free creature upgrades) and has taken action against players caught abusing them.
Olden Era passes 1,000,000 copies sold on Steam
One month into Early Access, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has sold over a million copies on Steam, with more than 17,000 reviews and over 33,000 members on the official Discord. Unfrozen says the milestone shaped the Early Access roadmap published the same day.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Teases a Roguelike Mode as It Hits 1 Million Sales
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has crossed 1 million copies sold in under a month of Steam early access, a standout success for the strategy RPG genre. The game had already shifted 250,000 copies and broke even on its development costs within its first day on sale, and it launched to roughly 90% positive Steam reviews. Its all-time concurrent player peak reached nearly 61,000, confirming strong momentum for the first mainline Heroes entry since Heroes VI in 2011.
Unfrozen unveils Olden Era's full Early Access roadmap
One month after launch, Unfrozen has published Olden Era's long-term Early Access roadmap in four stages: co-op Teamplay mode and an improved Random Map Generator first, then a matchmaking rework and Observer Mode/Replays, followed by an Underground Layer, Thieves' Guild and Ironman campaign mode, before a 1.0 release adding campaign acts 2 and 3 and a PvE Roguelike mode.
GamesRadar+ feature: Olden Era's hotseat mode revives the Heroes 3 multiplayer nostalgia
In a GamesRadar+ feature, the author revisits Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era's hotseat mode by playing it with their brother, echoing the local multiplayer sessions the two shared with Heroes 3 back in 2003. The piece highlights additions new to the series, including Law Points, an Astrology system for acquiring and upgrading spells, a battle Focus meter, and a reworked leveling system that lets players pick traits with synergy bonuses. The only drawback noted is that hotseat currently has no team-up option, which the author expects Unfrozen to add as the Early Access build evolves.
Olden Era publisher Hooded Horse launches $100M fund for indie games
Griffin Gaming Partners has launched a $100 million Special Opportunities Fund for indie developers, led by Tim Bender, CEO of Hooded Horse, publisher of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era. Unlike traditional venture capital, the fund provides project-based financing in exchange for a share of a game's revenue rather than equity, and has already backed 15 indie titles. While the fund isn't tied to Olden Era itself, it underscores Hooded Horse's growing influence in indie and strategy game funding.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Early Access Review (Pixelkin)
In its Early Access review, Pixelkin praises Olden Era for its faithful, nostalgic art style and its layered strategic depth across six play modes, including Arena, Single Hero, and a first campaign act. The outlet highlights new mechanics like subskills and faction laws as thoughtfully designed for veteran fans, but flags a brutally difficult AI on Hard and chaotic random maps as the main weak points, alongside the current lack of official team play. No numeric score was given.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Celebrates Half a Million Copies Sold
Less than 72 hours after its April 30, 2026 Early Access launch on Steam and Microsoft Store, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era passed 500,000 copies sold, peaking at over 60,000 concurrent players and topping Steam's best-seller list with a Very Positive rating across thousands of reviews. Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender called the reception an absolute thrill, and the game went on to top 650,000 copies within a week as Unfrozen continues shipping post-launch patches.