Ubisoft Sold Heroes of Might and Magic 3 on Steam Without the Game Files

Ubisoft launched a Steam re-release of Heroes of Might and Magic III on 26 August 2026, priced at US$10 and bundled with both expansions — but the download contained no actual game. Players who hit "play" were met with a command prompt window and a single line of text: "Dummy executable ensure that you are on the right Steam branch." The entire package weighed in at 23.49 kilobytes, a file size better suited to a sticky note than a strategy classic with over 200 maps and a random scenario generator, as the store page describes it. GameSpot

The fix took close to 11 hours to arrive. Ubisoft eventually replaced the dummy file with the real game, though KitGuru placed the wait at roughly 10 hours from launch. During the gap, some resourceful players found a workaround by downloading Horn of the Abyss, a long-running fan mod for the original game, according to Video Games Chronicle. VGC

Steam user reviews piled up fast, and most were negative. Several reviewers pointed prospective buyers toward Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete on GOG, a rival storefront, where it was on sale for US$5 at the time — half the price of the broken Steam listing for the same game. GameSpot

As of the GameSpot report, Ubisoft had not commented on or offered an explanation for the mix-up. The publisher's own support pages do address a separate, older issue with the game's HD edition on Steam — a missing OpenAL32.dll file — but that fix bears no relation to a release shipped entirely without its game data.

The timing is awkward for Ubisoft because the re-release was meant to build buzz for something much bigger. The company officially announced a full Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake on 25 August 2026, arriving in 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. According to Ubisoft's newsroom, the remake will feature updated 4K visuals, refined animations, modern audio, the original campaign, both expansions, and a unified story with a new prologue, epilogue, and cinematic scenes. Ubisoft

The Steam re-release, by contrast, is pitched as "the original version of the game from 1999" — a nostalgia product meant to tide fans over until the remake lands. It still says © 1999 Ubisoft Entertainment on the listing. The copyright is accurate. The game files, for nearly half a day, were not.