On August 25, 2026, Ubisoft officially announced Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake during Gamescom Opening Night Live. The game is planned for 2027 and will come to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
And this is not another simple HD remaster. Ubisoft is rebuilding Heroes 3 in the Snowdrop engine, with a fully 3D world, new animations, modern audio and a free camera. The original campaigns and both expansions will be included, together with a new prologue, epilogue and cinematics. Hot Seat is also coming back, together with online multiplayer and simultaneous turns.
So on paper, there is quite a lot to be excited about. The reaction from the Heroes 3 community, however, was not exactly positive.
The New Heroes 3 Looks Too AI-Generated
Probably the biggest criticism after the announcement was the visual style. A lot of fans simply don’t like it. The towns, units and some of the environments look too clean and generic compared to the original game. Many players described them as AI-generated or AI-looking, and I understand why.
The original Heroes 3 has a very specific style. Even after more than 25 years you can immediately recognize a Heroes 3 town, creature or battlefield. The new version looks much more modern, but somehow less unique. Some of the new town screens especially received a lot of criticism. There are more objects on the screen and technically much better graphics, but at the same time some fans feel that they have less character than the original versions.
There were even discussions about whether AI was actually used to create some of the art. But I think we are focusing too much on this. Even if we don’t love every new creature or town design, there are some very good reasons why fans of classic PC games should be happy that this remake exists.
Heroes 3 Is Finally Coming to Modern Consoles
This is probably the biggest one for me. Heroes of Might and Magic III is finally coming to PlayStation and Xbox.
Heroes has always been a PC franchise. And yes, playing Heroes 3 with a mouse will probably always be the best way to experience it. But bringing it to consoles opens the game to a completely different audience. Heroes 3 will suddenly be in the list of the best retro games available on PS5.
People who never owned an old gaming PC, never used GOG and have no interest in installing a game from 1999 will be able to find Heroes 3 directly on their console. That is a big deal for a game this old. Of course, Heroes 3 is not a freeware PC game, and Ubisoft are making it for profit. But if making money from the game also means putting Heroes 3 in front of millions of new players, I don’t really see this as a bad thing.
A New Generation Could Discover Turn-Based Strategy
There is another reason why I think this remake could be important. Turn-based strategy is simply not one of the most popular genres among Gen Z and younger players.
Games like Heroes, Civilization, Jagged Alliance and many other classic strategy games ask you to stop, think and plan what you are going to do. There is no need for fast reactions. You can spend five minutes deciding what creature to recruit, where to move your hero or whether attacking another army is actually a good idea. And this is exactly what makes Heroes 3 so good.
A modern remake could introduce this type of gameplay to people who have never really tried it before. Maybe someone buys the game because the graphics look good on PS5, then discovers that they actually love turn-based strategy.
If the remake becomes successful, other publishers will notice. And if that gives us even a few more turn-based strategy games in the future, we can only be happy with that outcome.
Old Players Also Get a Reason to Return
Then there are people like us who already know Heroes 3. Some of us have finished the campaigns several times already. We know the towns, the creatures and the maps. We also know exactly how painful it is when the enemy takes that unprotected town while our main hero is on the other side of the map.
The original game is still perfectly playable today, so do we actually need a remake? Probably not. But I still want to play it.
Going through the campaign again with completely new graphics, animations, sound and cinematics could make the experience feel surprisingly fresh. It will still be Heroes 3 underneath, but hopefully different enough to make exploring Erathia interesting again.
And if it doesn’t work, the original Heroes 3 is still there.
Ubisoft even released Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete Edition on Steam together with the remake announcement. So ironically, the remake is also making the original game easier to access.
The Community Content Is Not Being Forgotten
There is one more thing from Ubisoft’s announcement that I think deserves more attention. The remake is planned to support the thousands of community-created Heroes 3 maps and campaigns made during the last 25 years.
There will also be updated editor tools and an in-game hub for finding and sharing community content. For Heroes 3 this is extremely important, because the game survived for this long not only because of the original campaigns, but because people simply never stopped playing, creating maps and improving the game.
If Ubisoft really manages to keep that community side alive, this could give Heroes 3 another very long life.
Maybe We Should Give It a Chance
I understand why some fans are disappointed with the graphics. I also prefer the original art style. But I don’t think we should hate the whole remake just because some towns and creatures look AI-generated or lack the soul of the originals.
Gaming is changing. More and more graphics, animations and probably even some game mechanics will be created or assisted by AI in the future. We may like it or not, but it is probably something we will have to get used to.
What matters more to me is what the final game actually does. If Heroes 3 Remake brings the franchise to consoles, introduces younger players to turn-based strategy, gives old players a fresh way to experience the campaign and keeps the community around the game alive, then it has already done something good for classic gaming.
Maybe it won’t replace the original. Actually, I hope it doesn’t even try to.
But it could make a lot more people discover why we are still talking about Heroes of Might and Magic III more than 25 years after its release. And that alone is enough reason for me to give it a chance.