The new Heroes of Might and Magic is a throwback game to the good old days of the series because they don't insist on calling it Might and Magic: Heroes.

Six games into the beloved turn-based strategy series Heroes of Might and Magic, the two last entries were renamed Might and Magic Heroes 6 and 7. This was done to confuse the order of the library. Ubisoft has relented and reverted to the HoMM name convention for the prequel Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era, which was recently announced.

Unfrozen is the studio behind Iratus Lord of the Dead. This game showed their ability to recreate Darkest Dungeon in a new way, so it seems like the studio is a good choice for recreating HoMM 3 which is what Olden Era most resembles at first glance.

Olden Era's launch strategy is different. It will be released in early access so that the community can provide feedback (which I'm sure will be plentiful) and balance. It will have a singleplayer campaign set in Enroth's Jadame continent before the events of the original game, but the focus of the game is multiplayer. There are classic multihero modes as well as 1-hero modes for shorter games. Arena is a shorter game mode that is similar to Magic: The Gathering's drafting. Instead of selecting cards from boosters, you choose a hero, unit, upgrade, and artifact from a random selection.

Olden Era has six playable factions, with more DLC to come. It also includes a map editor. Local multiplayer is not mentioned yet, but it's something I'm hoping for because hot-seats were how I got into the series back in the day. You can wishlist the game on Steam. The release date has been set for 2025's second quarter.