Ubisoft brought back Heroes of Might and Magic 3, or so players thought, as those who purchased the newly-released PC game ended up empty-handed. Somehow, the new Ubisoft release didn’t actually include the game that players were promised and paying for.
During Gamescom, Ubisoft revealed that a Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake was on the way. The fully rebuilt game will offer 4K visuals, a 3D world with full camera control, and reduxed audio, while still supporting the campaigns created for the original version of the game. This makes the remake particularly inviting to those who loved the original Heroes of Might and Magic games, but some of those fans ended up with a sour surprise when they went to revisit one of the classics.
Ubisoft Forgets to Release a Game
To celebrate the upcoming remake, Ubisoft decided to add the classic version, which originally launched back in 1999, to the list of surprise shadow dropped games by putting it on Steam. Priced at just $10, it seems that a number of gamers went to check it out, but quickly realized something was wrong when downloading the game. The system requirements call for 1 GB of space to play, but attempts to download the game only yielded a 23.49 KB file. Trying to boot it up resulted in a CMD opening, but not much else. As one might expect, angry gamers flooded the reviews for the game to complain, and rightfully so, given there was no game included in their purchases.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
While it’s not clear what exactly happened, the issue has been rectified by Ubisoft and the developers of Might and Magic. A tweet sent by the official Might and Magic account thanked the game community for bringing it to the developers’ attention, and apologized for the problem and the time it took to implement a fix. Those who kept the game on Steam reported that a nearly 800MB update was issued for the game, and as a result, they now actually have the game they paid for.
Some Ubisoft games have launched in a very rough state in the past, with one of the most notable and notorious instances being Assassin’s Creed Unity. However, not including the game at all is an anomaly. Presumably, the tiny EXE file that players initially received was just a placeholder file that wasn’t properly swapped out with the real game before the title became available to purchase on the Steam. Thankfully, it didn’t take the developers very long to fix the problem, and with Steam’s robust refund policy, those who were too irritated to wait likely got a refund, so there’s no significant long-term harm done.
While players take this opportunity to check out Heroes of Might and Magic 3, they also won’t have too long to wait before the remade version of the game launches. Ubisoft has announced that the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake will launch in 2027. Gamers on Steam and other platforms will be able to play it, with the title launching on PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and the Ubisoft Store, as well as PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
- Released
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March 3, 1999
- ESRB
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E For Everyone // Violence
- Developer(s)
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New World Computing, Loki Software, Dotemu
- Publisher(s)
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The 3DO Company, Ubisoft, Loki Software
- Multiplayer
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Local Multiplayer
