Homeworld 3 cover
Homeworld 3 screenshot
PC Epic Steam
Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy

Homeworld 3

Year One Roadmap Reveal and Updated PC Specs! Collector’s Edition Unboxing!
Hello Commanders!

We are quickly approaching our May 13th launch date for Homeworld 3! Play on May 10 with advance access granted to players at the Fleet Command level, including those with Collectors Editions, and Fig backers.

Homeworld 3 Collector’s Edition



Get a look at what is in the Collector’s Edition! Starting today, you might see unboxing videos of the Homeworld 3 Collector’s Editions hitting various publications and YouTube!

The Collector’s Edition includes the below, and digital pre-order bonus content:

[table] [tr] [th]Physical Goods[/th] [th]Digital Goods[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]14” Khar-Kushan Mothership[/td] [td]Homeworld 3 base game Steam Key[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]3” Hiigaran Destroyer Figure[/td] [td]Homeworld 3 Year One Pass[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]1.8” Hiigaran Torpedo Frigate Figure[/td] [td]Homeworld 3 soundtrack by Paul Ruskay[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]WW2-inspired spotter playing card deck[/td] [td]Multiplayer customization set (includes: banners, ship decals, icons, name colors)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Homeworld 3 logo keychain[/td] [td]Play 72 hours early (on May 10!)[/td] [/tr][/table]

Purchase the Homeworld 3 Collector’s Edition: Amazon | GameStop | Target

Homeworld 3 Year One Roadmap for War Games/h2]



Today, we’re happy to share our year one roadmap will you all! These updates are aimed to provide players with a variety of content for the War Games game mode such as new challenges, artifacts, classes, systems, maps and playable factions.

Here’s what you have to look forward to in the year after launch:

  • June Free Content Drop: New challenges and artifacts.
  • July Paid DLC: New playable faction, new faction-starting fleets, artifacts and faction emblem
  • August Free Content Drop: New challenges, new artifacts and new map & system.
  • October Paid DLC: New playable faction, new faction-starting fleets and faction emblem
  • Fourth Quarter Free Content Drop: New challenges, map and more new content.

Our free content drops will be available for all owners of Homeworld 3, and feature new challenges, artifacts, maps, and systems! We will have more information on the contents of each drop closer to their release dates!

Included in the Collector’s Edition, and available separately, is the Year One Pass, which includes the three DLC drops that expand the co-op War Games mode with new playable factions and artifacts. These DLCs will also be available for purchase separately.

Updated PC Specs 



On the road to launch the team has continued to improve Homeworld 3, some of those improvements include further optimization to performance and gameplay. As a result, we have lowered the recommended specs. Now, we'd like to present the most current recommended PC specs for Homeworld 3 when it launches on May 13!


We’re looking forward to beginning the search for the Khar-Sajuuk with you on May 13. Play on May 10 with advance access granted to players at the Fleet Command level, including those with Collectors Editions, and Fig backers.

Check out our previous post to caught up on Homeworld’s story for far.

Follow Homeworld on Social:
HomeworldUniverse.com | X (Twitter) | Instagram | Facebook | Discord

Pre-Order Homeworld 3 on Steam

Content Creators: Apply for a code on Homeworld 3’s Lurkit Page.

New Briefing: Catch up on Homeworld’s Story so Far.
Hello, Commanders.

We are rapidly approaching the launch of Homeworld 3 on May 13.

Our teams are hard at work in preparation, including incorporating invaluable feedback received after the recent War Games Demo, where players experienced Homeworld 3 for the first time.

During the demo, participants had the opportunity to refresh themselves with our in-game briefing containing the history of the Hiigarans so far. We are sharing it again here, ahead of launch for those looking for additional information that might have missed it.

While familiarity with previous events is advantageous, it is not a prerequisite for fully enjoying the story campaign in Homeworld 3.



The History of Homeworld



The barren desert planet of Kharak is home to a resilient but divided people, known as The Kushan. They fought over resources under a burning sun for thousands of years.

Everything changed when Rachel S'Jet discovered something buried deep beneath the unforgiving sands. It was an ancient technology that would allow the Kushan to escape their dying world: A hyperspace core. And with it, a map that pointed the way to the true home of the Kushan: Hiigara.

The Kushan put aside their differences, and for 100 years worked together to construct a grand Mothership that could transport 600,000 Kushan to Hiigara.

Karan S’Jet, Rachel’s descendent, volunteered to be bound, body and mind, to the Mothership. Through her sacrifice, she became its Navigator and “Fleet Command”, guiding the Kushan to their true home.

Unfortunately, the efforts of the Kushan did not go unnoticed.

The Taiidan Empire, a powerful enemy who had exiled the Kushan to Kharak 4000 years ago, took swift and devastating action.

While Kharak burned, Karan rescued all that remained of her people. Instead of fleeing into the dark, Karan turned the Mothership into the tip of a spear. A spear aimed directly at Hiigara.

War ensued against the Taiidan empire, and through the struggle, Karan’s fleet emerged victorious.

The Taiidan Empire was shattered and the Kushan reclaimed their homeworld, becoming Hiigarans once more. At this time, Karan learned of the existence of two other hyperspace cores.

The first of these was gifted to Karan by the Bentusi, an ancient race who called no planet home and lived only among the stars.

The final core was won by Karan upon defeating the Vaygr, a vicious foe who sought to control the cores at any cost.

Karan united all three cores aboard the legendary Progenitor mothership Sajuuk and, in doing so, unlocked a vast hyperspace gate network that enabled interstellar travel for all.

Trade and Culture spread effortlessly between the stars. Population centers grew in places previously inaccessible, and the galaxy was united in peace.

Thus began The Age of S’Jet.

During this peaceful time, there was a region deep in the Outer Rim from which no ship ever returned. It became known as The Anomaly.

Gates in this area were erratic and dangerous. Thousands of lives were lost. Eventually, these gates went completely dark, and The Anomaly spread.

Karan S’Jet, aboard a new mothership, the Khar-Sajuuk, was sent to find the source of The Anomaly and stop it. She never returned.

Twenty years later the burden falls to Karan’s protégé: Imogen S’Jet. This is where our story for Homeworld 3 begins.



We’re looking forward to launching off on the search for the Khar-Sajuuk with you on May 13. Play on May 10 with advance access granted to players at the Fleet Command level, including those with Collectors Editions, and Fig backers.

Follow Homeworld on Social:
HomeworldUniverse.com | X (Twitter) | Instagram | Facebook | Discord

Pre-Order Homeworld 3 on Steam.

Content Creators: Apply for a code on Homeworld 3’s Lurkit Page.

Dev Update: 5 Big Changes We’re Making Because Of Your Feedback
Just over a month ago we released Homeworld 3’s War Games demo. It’s hard to express how awesome it felt seeing waves of players jump in and get their first taste of what we’ve been working on for so long. What’s really staggering, though, is that over 100,000 of you played that demo during the week of Steam Next Fest. Think about this for a second: Homeworld 3 is a sequel to a game so old that, if it were born in the US, it’d soon be able to legally drink beer. It's rare for a series to stand the test of time like Homeworld has, and seeing so many of you waiting patiently all these years is an incredible honor — and a responsibility we take seriously.

We’re incredibly grateful to have seen so much engagement from the community during the War Games demo. We couldn’t have predicted how many of you would speak up to make your feedback known, get involved with the conversation, and offer your perspectives. This past month, everyone was heads down discussing every post we saw from Steam, social, Reddit, Discord and beyond. We did this in service of putting together a plan worthy of this community’s dedication and passion for Homeworld.

In this Dev Update, we are sharing how we are applying your insightful feedback from the War Games demo to Homeworld 3. It’s not a comprehensive list of every change we’ve made (or will make). Instead, our hope is to address the most common pain points players experienced and show how we’re working to solve them.

We'll be focusing on 5 main points today with a lot of nuance in them:

  1. Controls
  2. Combat
  3. Attack Move
  4. HUD, NLIPS, and more.
  5. War Games


1. Controls — or, rather, giving you control


We hear you: The control options in the War Games demo didn’t meet your expectations. Let’s not mince words here. Many of you found that the Modern controls were simply unintuitive and that the adjustments we made to Classic controls departed too much from previous Homeworld games.

As we address these issues, three key principles guide our solutions:
  • Build an intuitive control scheme for all players that leverages Homeworld 3’s unique features and modern camera control best practices.
  • Understand and acknowledge what veteran Homeworld players find familiar about the original control schemes.
  • Let everyone have freedom to customize controls to best fit their unique playstyle as much as possible.



Now, let’s talk about how we’re delivering on those principles. First, there are some changes that have an enormous trickle-down effect on all aspects of Homeworld 3 and its control schemes. They are:
  • Nearly every single keyboard input is now rebindable.

    • Rebind abilities, keyboard-related camera controls, command modifiers, and more!

  • We have made sweeping changes to default hotkeys, which we’ll outline in more detail below. Spoiler: Rejoice, friends, as Focus Target is now triggered by simply pressing F!
  • We now have two presets for hotkey bindings, a revamped Modern layout and a layout that replicates the hotkeys used in Homeworld 2 Remastered (We’ll discuss these in detail in just a minute).
    • If you manually rebind an input and then swap hotkey presets, your manually rebinded inputs won’t be overridden.

  • We’ve increased movement and rotation speed of the default camera settings. The camera now feels very similar, in terms of speed, to Homeworld 2 Remastered.
    • We’ve also given you more granular control over the camera settings, so you can fine-tune it as needed.

Those larger, universal changes, especially being able to rebind keyboard inputs, are something to keep in mind for this next part. When you first fire up Homeworld 3 at launch, you’ll be asked to choose between three control schemes: Modern, Legacy, or Customize. Let’s quickly talk about each:
  • The Modern control scheme has been designed for Homeworld 3 by incorporating two decades worth of innovations and learnings from other strategy games and is being made even better thanks to your feedback. This setup is meant to cater to a wide audience of players and doesn’t assume prior experience with Homeworld.
    • The first-person camera is controlled by WASD + QE.
    • Unit movement prioritizes clicking on terrain to provide waypoints.
    • We’ve also moved away from the War Games demo’s grid-style hotkey convention (where hotkeys were bound to QWERT + ASDFG keys). Hotkeys are now directly related to the action they perform but with a bias towards keys that are easily reached with your left-hand resting on WASD.
      • For example, “V” is now your default keybind for MoVe because Homeworld 2 Remastered’s use of “M” is a bit of a stretch on QWERTY-style keyboards. “H” is for Harvest, “A” is for Attack, and so forth.

    • In cases where a hotkey overlaps with a camera control, Modern preset prioritizes the camera. This effectively disables that hotkey. (For example, while the “D” key normally tells a ship to dock, with Modern controls it moves the camera left.)
      • To avoid this, you can choose to enable the option where the Modern preset camera can only be moved when holding the right mouse button. Or you can just rebind Dock to another hotkey.
      • We’ve fixed a bug in the War Games demo related to the above, where using right-click to engage the camera resulted in all hotkeys being disabled. Now, using right-click only disables any overlapping ability keys.

    • Certain UI features, like Tactical Overlay icon amalgamation, are turned on with the goal of providing concise, streamlined information about the battlefield and your units.
    • Certain unit behaviors are prioritized over others. For example, instead of docking with a Carrier when you right click on it, applicable ships will now guard that Carrier instead.


  • The Legacy control scheme replicates Homeworld 2 Remastered’s controls and feedback. This setup catered to players wanting an experience that feels consistent with previous games, and effectively replaces the Classic control scheme you saw in the War Games demo.
    • The orbit-style camera is controlled by the mouse, arrow keys, or by focusing targets.
    • Unit movement prioritizes the Movement Disc, exactly as you remembered it.
      • We’ve expanded Movement Disc functionality to add some features that were available in Homeworld 2 Remastered, like using “Shift” to adjust height.

    • Hotkeys automatically default to those used in Homeworld 2 Remastered. (Move = “M”, Attack = “Ctrl-A”, etc.)
    • UI features are identical or closely resemble Homeworld 2 Remastered. This includes turning off icon amalgamation in the Tactical Overlay so you can see every unit icon regardless of how many are in a small area!
    • Unit behaviors, where applicable, will replicate Homeworld 2 Remastered. To repeat our example above, right-clicking on a Carrier will cause ships to dock with it.


  • The “Customize” option is for players interested in taking the best of both of these schemes to create something unique. Here you can mix and match both the Modern and Legacy presets to find the perfect setup. Unsurprisingly, this has become the favorite option for most of us on the development team, as it lets you retain aspects about Homeworld 2 Remastered that you loved while still benefiting from some more user-friendly options.
    • Every option outlined above (and many more) are presented as a set of toggles that you swap between Modern and Legacy. Want a WASD-controlled, orbiting camera with Homeworld 2 Remastered hotkeys and icon amalgamation in the Tactical Overlay? Go nuts!

Thanks to your feedback, we feel we’re much closer to delivering on a simple truth: There is no right way to play Homeworld 3 so long as you feel in control and are having fun. Our sincere hope is that the control changes outlined above (and any others you discover at launch) are a testament that we are invested and listening to what you have to say.

2. Making Combat More Satisfying


One piece of feedback we saw, again and again, is that many players felt like combat engagements were over too quickly. Whether it was formations of Interceptors or much bigger, tankier ships like Frigates and Carriers, many of you felt like units were just a little… squishy.

Seeing that widespread sentiment, we knew we had to make changes. A core part of the Homeworld fantasy is the idea of your ships enduring from one battle to the next. As we outlined in a previous Dev Update, our art team has gone to extreme lengths to ensure ships bear the scars of their hard-fought battles. But all of that is for naught if combat feels like feeding ships into a woodchipper.

  • We’ve increased the hitpoints of every ship by 30 percent. Now everything takes longer to explode without sacrificing the potential for devastating ambushes or other massive swings in momentum. This is just one crucial ingredient in a much larger mix of adjustments to ship behavior that makes combat more satisfying, intuitive, and tactical.
  • We’ve made improvements to formations that make using them more beneficial and less tedious.
    • When activating a formation, ships will organize themselves more organically instead of dropping everything they were doing to go form up.
    • When activating a formation on ships that are traveling to the same destination, the formation will anchor itself around whichever ship is the furthest ahead, so slower ships will continue moving forward and leading ships won’t suddenly pull a 180 to go regroup.
    • There was also a painful bug that often caused ships to stop dead in their tracks when given a formation assignment. That’s now fixed.
    • The sphere formation, in particular, is now a much more potent ball of death that is useful when you want to concentrate firepower and movement around a single ship.

  • The way we’ve designed ship abilities in Homeworld 3 is different from previous games and we were very interested in their reception. We heard from many players that abilities required too much babysitting, which clashed with some of their more passive benefits.
    • To address that, we’ve made ability durations and their cooldowns longer. The result is that when to activate an ability is a choice that carries more consequence than before. You’re no longer spamming abilities the moment they’re available, but instead waiting and choosing the opportune moment to use them for maximum effectiveness — knowing that failing to do so will result in that ability being offline for much longer.

  • Oh yeah, speaking of babysitting, we’ve had a little chat with Support Frigate pilots and let them know they’re more than welcome to heal friendly ships without being directly instructed to. They seemed very excited about this new level of autonomy.


3. Classic Attack Move is Back!


Just like in earlier Homeworld games, you will be able to issue Attack Move orders that your units will intelligently obey based on the presence of hostile threats, opening up new avenues for more strategic control of your units. Attack Move is actually a pretty nuanced topic, so let’s unpack this a bit.

In the War Games demo, a lot of players were frustrated that Attack Move wasn’t acting like they expected it should. There were a couple of factors here:
  • Homeworld 3 is still in development, and when the demo was released, we didn’t have a proper implementation of Attack Move orders.
  • Many larger ships in Homeworld 3 feature point-defense systems like omni-directional turrets that automatically engage nearby threats. There was a bug in the demo, however, that was often preventing those turrets from opening fire as intended.

These factors resulted in confusion over whether ships could move and attack at the same time. Fortunately, they’ve been addressed:

  • Attack Move now works as intended, and can be used with either the Modern or Legacy control presets. To initiate an Attack Move order you can:
    • Give an Attack order and click on terrain.
    • Give a Move order and, when the Movement Disc appears, hold “Ctrl” to convert the Move order to an Attack Move order (the Movement Disc will turn red to indicate this).
    • Units currently engaging hostile targets can be given a Move order and they will move to a chosen point but keep attacking their existing target as long as they are within range, allowing you to kite enemies.

We’ve also added in some extra functionality to provide more clarity into how your ships are responding to orders. In previous Homeworld games, you’d either see a green line showing you where units were moving or a red line showing you who they were attacking, but never both lines at the same time. That was often confusing because it could look like your units were ignoring orders. We’ve changed it so that you’ll see both lines if your units are attacking and moving at the same time.

4. HUD, NLIPS, and other fun acronyms


Let’s take a minute to talk about some other important adjustments that we think make Homeworld 3 a more immersive experience. A lot of you felt like the HUD ate up too much screen real estate, especially compared to older Homeworld games. We’ve always endeavored to make Homeworld 3 the most beautiful strategy game you’ve ever seen. We’d hate for players to feel like they can’t get lost in the splendor of space because other elements are getting in the way.

The only solution was obvious: We’ve added a slider to adjust the scale of the HUD in the settings menu. We’ve also dialed it back by default and refactored many elements of the HUD so it will appear less obstructive than it did during the War Games demo.

Speaking of scaling things back, you’d be forgiven if you saw “NLIPS” written above and thought a cat had jumped on my keyboard. NLIPS (Non-Linear Inverse Perspective Scrolling) is a feature from older Homeworld games that scales ship models up relative to the camera’s distance to them. Essentially, it was a way to ensure you could still see and easily select smaller ships like Fighters even when zoomed very far out.

In the War Games demo, NLIPS was bugged and that resulted in ship sizes being all out of whack. That obviously made it harder to ground yourself in the drama of combat. It also resulted in some pretty funny “Don’t talk to me or my son ever again” moments where one Fighter would appear much larger than another one right next to it. NLIPS issues have been addressed and it now works properly. You can also turn off NLIPS entirely, if you prefer a totally realistic sense of scale for ships.

There’s some other relevant adjustments I’d like to mention:
  • The bandbox (or selection box) is now much more accurate than before, so you’ll find it easier to select clusters of units.
  • The Spacebar no longer builds a ship when the Build Menu is open, so you won’t accidentally start production on something when you really meant to open the Sensors Manager.
  • We’ve also made the Sensors Manager more usable by increasing zoom sensitivity.
    • And don’t forget there’s now more granular options for icon amalgamation so you can select a preset that is most useful to you.

  • Did you know you can retire ships to refund their resources? Not your fault if you didn’t because it wasn’t in the tutorial. That’s been rectified.
  • In a similar vein, there’s a powerful context menu you can activate with Alt+Right Click to access additional unit orders. We’ve given it a proper place in the advanced section of the tutorial too.


5. Variety is the Spice of War Games


We’re thrilled that so many of you are just as excited by War Games as we are. I hope you’ll be even more jazzed about some of these changes we’ve implemented thanks to your feedback.
  • We’ve doubled the amount of objectives that can happen during a run.

    • To clarify this just a smidge, the four objectives you saw in the War Games demo are now only available during the first mission.
    • The second mission has an entirely new set of four objectives. To reflect the escalating difficulty of a run, these objectives require use of advanced mechanics, like salvaging wrecks, protecting flagships, and capturing ships.
    • Enabling difficulty modifiers that spawn an extra objective during each mission now vastly increases the number of objective permutations you can experience between runs.

  • Resource Controllers are now free but take significantly longer to produce in War Games.

    • We saw how frustrating it was to have a run end with a whimper because your Resource Controllers were destroyed and you lacked the funds to build new ones.
    • Now you can always reboot your production operations, but their increased build time will put you in a very vulnerable position until they’re back online.


-------

As I said, this list of changes isn’t necessarily comprehensive but is meant to address the more widespread points of feedback we saw. That so many of you not only took the time to play the War Games demo but then dedicated so much energy into writing detailed feedback is not something we take for granted. That’s why it was so important that we first took the time to organize, investigate, and assess, so that we could come back with more than just vague assurances or roundabout answers to your biggest concerns.

That isn’t to say this process is over, either. We’re keen to hear what you think about today’s Dev Update and will continue to listen and assess in the weeks left until Homeworld 3 launches on May 13.

Thank you!

Lance Mueller, Game Director

Play Homeworld 3 Now! The War Games demo ends Feb 12!
Thank you to everyone who has jumped into the free Homeworld 3 War Games demo so far! We’re extremely grateful for all of the support as well as your willingness to share and comment on what you’ve experienced so far. The team is looking at what we’ve seen so far and currently putting together plans for addressing core feedback.

This is the last (and only) weekend to assemble your fleets before the demo ends Feb 12 at 10am PT/18:00 UTC! The demo is currently live on Steam and EGS for all players.

War Games extends Homeworld 3 beyond just the campaign with an exciting 1-3 player co-op mode that fuses Homeworld’s RTS gameplay with roguelike inspiration. Commanders manage fleet strength across each battle and claim powerful artifacts that augment ships with each completed objective. Based on the results, players will unlock additional artifacts and starting fleets that keep the challenge fresh. The best part, artifacts and fleets unlocked during the demo will follow you to the game’s launch on May 13.

This optional game mode, along with the classic Skirmish mode, will be playable at launch at any point and does not need to be unlocked from playing the campaign. These modes don’t tie into the story or campaign and are meant to be battle simulations designed to keep Commander’s strategic skills in top-shape as preparation to take on what awaits in Homeworld 3.

You don’t have to play alone. War Games is played online with up to 3 players in a mission, even friends across Steam and EGS through the SHiFT friend’s system.

In this demo, you’ll play through 4 mission areas: Kesura, Naraka, Under the Ice, and Production Bay. Command one of two factions, Hiigarans and the Incarnate (unlocked at level 10), newly introduced through Homeworld 3’s campaign. After launch, players will be able to experience additional, unannounced, factions that will be added in future DLC.

Now is the time to download the Homeworld 3 War Games beta on the Steam and EGS store pages. Share your feedback through our support site or by joining us on the Homeworld Universe Discord.

Learn more about the War Games demo by reading our FAQ!

See you in-game, Commanders!

Need more action after the demo? Take the Homeworld universe anywhere you go with Homeworld Mobile, available on iOS and Android!

War Games Demo Hotfix
We have just deployed a hotfix to Homeworld 3 War Games demo!

This hotfix is to test the update process and player impact after Homeworld 3 goes live on May 13*. The hotfix contains two adjustments to the game:


  • Addresses a crash on game launch for regions using non-latin text characters.
  • Increased the default camera speed and sensitivity to address concerns on the default tuning feeling sluggish.
    Note: This change will apply to all users who have not modified or changed their sensitivity settings in the menu.


*for more info on the May 13 launch date, read more here.

Homeworld 3 Launch Date Update
Hello, Commanders –  

We hope you all have been enjoying your first-time going hands-on with Homeworld 3 during our public demo of War Games.  

Watching you share your experiences, exchange and debate strategies, and give us constant feedback has been incredible. This was our first time seeing the game played at scale, which is always an equally thrilling and nerve-wracking moment.  

We also recently gathered a dedicated group of players from outside our organizations to play through the full game. This resulted in additional insights and perspectives that will be incorporated to make Homeworld 3 the best experience possible.   


After careful analysis of feedback, we made the decision to delay the global launch of Homeworld 3 until May 13, with advanced access set for May 10, to ensure that we’re making the final tweaks needed to deliver at the level of quality that we strive for and you deserve. 

To say that you as a community of players have been waiting patiently for this next installment would be an understatement, and we are deeply appreciative of that. We will continue to keep you updated on our progress.  

As always, you’re welcome to send your feedback via social channels, the Homeworld Universe Discord, and through our support page.   

Thank you all for playing, and we’ll talk again soon –  

Gearbox and BBI

We understand you may have some follow-up questions regarding this announcement. Please read through the FAQ below for more information.



Is my Collector’s Edition order from Amazon really cancelled?
To get the accurate, current status of your order you’ll need to reach out to Amazon directly.


Will I be able to re-order the CE if my order was cancelled?
Now that there is a new release date for the game, retail partners each have their own systems for determining when new orders can take place. It is each retailer’s decision once a product’s release date changes when and if to re-list it for sale. We are ensuring that the retail partners that previously had the CE for sale have all of the updated information on the new release date, and will communicate that information as soon as possible.


Why was my Collector’s Edition order cancelled on Amazon?
When some retailers don’t receive product on their expected timeline, in this case our Collector’s Edition due to the remaining work to be done on the game, automated processes can be triggered that can either send out a delay or cancellation notice to their customers. While all retailers have their own processes for this type of scenario, this is very likely what happened to your order. We’ve communicated our new release window to all our retail partners and expect the CE to be relisted, or delivery dates updated, soon


Is the Collector’s Edition still available for pre-order?
Yes, as long as it has not sold out yet with your chosen region/retailer. Details on official retail partners can be found on Homeworld Universe.

When will my Collector’s Edition arrive? Will it arrive in time for the Advance Access period?
For players who purchased the Collector’s Edition through Fig, Gearbox Publishing is responsible for ensuring a timely delivery for the new advanced access date of May 10, 2024.

For those purchasing the CE through retailers, those retailers will receive the Collector’s Edition from Gearbox Publishing in time to ship them to customers for the new advanced access date of May 10, 2024.

Please note that we cannot guarantee delivery dates, as the speed of delivery is dependent on several factors, including but not limited to, shipping terms of the retailer and the possibility of general shipping issues arising that are out of our control.

Is my CE digital key included in the physical shipment?
Yes. Your digital download code will be packed inside your Collector’s Edition box. We cannot email you your key separately.

How can I update my Shipping address for the Collector’s Edition?
For players who purchased the CE through Fig, please reach out to Customer Support to update your address.

For players who purchased the CE through other retailers, address updates should be made directly with the retailer.

I didn’t get a chance to order a collector’s edition previously, where can I purchase one?
Details on official retail partners can be found on Homeworld Universe.

If you have any other questions that were not answered here, please feel free to reach out to Customer Support.

We thank you for your continued support, patience, and understanding.

Play the War Games Demo on PC Now
War Games mode fuses Homeworld’s RTS gameplay with roguelike inspiration, charging commanders to take on a randomized series of fleet combat challenges. Claim powerful Artifacts that augment your ships with more power, speed, and, of course, weapons. Based on your results, you’ll unlock new fleets to shake up your strategy.

This demo, available to all Steam players starting February 5 at 10am PT until February 12 at 10am PT, supports up to three players as they engage waves of hostiles in a series of increasingly challenging encounters. Players can find teammates through Quick Match or create a lobby to team up with friends online. 

It’s important to note that any Fleets or Artifacts you unlock in the War Games demo will carry over when Homeworld 3 launches. For players not using Steam Cloud Saves, make sure you don't delete your demo files as we'll be sharing info on the exact transfer process later.

Each level presents a greater challenge and new modifiers to your next War Games run. This demo will feature four different maps and a slew of things to unlock as you continue to play, including different starting fleets (maybe even an extra special one!) plus new Artifacts and more.

For more information, we shared more about War Games in our latest Dev Update and make sure to take a look at our War Games FAQ!

As always, you’re welcome to send your feedback via social channels, the Homeworld Universe Discord, and through our support page.

Watch the Homeworld 3 Documentary Now!
A few months ago, PC Gamer came out to Vancouver for a sit-down and chat with Homeworld 3 developers Blackbird Interactive. The result is a new mini-documentary, released today, that goes in-depth on Homeworld 3’s new mechanics, design inspirations, and the “love letter to the fans of the franchise” that has been so meticulously crafted by the incredibly talented developers at Blackbird Interactive.


Highlights in the mini-doc above include a deep dive on new cover-based tactics, where players will navigate around gigantic, dilapidated structures and find new optimal approach vectors across a vast array of diverse battlefields. The mini-doc also includes some inside looks at how BBI has raised the bar on visual and audio fidelity with Homeworld 3, so be sure to consult the system requirements post below to ensure you’re ready for launch on March 8, 2024.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1840080/view/3887231382685853205
Pre-order the Fleet Command Edition to play 72 hours early!

👇 BUY HOMEWORLD 3 👇


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1840080/Homeworld_3/

Dev Update: Prepare for launch
The journey to Homeworld 3’s March 8th launch is one over 20 years in the making. It started with a simple idea: Let’s take the cinematic space combat of Homeworld 1 and set it amid majestic superstructures that transform empty space into topographically-rich battlefields teeming with opportunities to ambush, retreat, defend, and deceive. Though that idea proved too technologically complex to realize in Homeworld 2, it also was too badass for us to leave it behind.

Now here we are. Homeworld 3 launches in just under three months. Three months! The end of this incredible journey is in sight. We couldn’t be more excited (and humbled, hopeful, nervous — there’s a lot of emotions swirling around us these days).


This month has been packed with big Homeworld 3 news. A few weeks ago, Homeworld 3 was revealed to be the 8th most anticipated launch of 2024 at the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted. Then we debuted an extra special mini-documentary all about the making of Homeworld 3 and the journey to this moment. Good things come in threes, right?

In this Dev Update, we’re going to explore how War Games’ roguelike systems are creating a game mode we hope you’ll play for a positively disgusting number of hours. Then — for those of you who would rather shoot at your friends — we’re going to rip the tarp off of Skirmish mode and talk specifics. Lastly, we have a special message from Lead Producer Iain Myers-Smith and Game Director Lance Mueller are taking a moment to reflect on the journey to this moment. Iain and Lance also braved BBI’s spooky attic and found the game development equivalent of a baby book so we could look at how much our little Homeworld 3 has grown over the years.


War Games: Keeping You On Your Toes



I think Lance put it best when he said Homeworld 3 is built using the rule of thirds. One third is the Homeworld you know and love. One third is better — technical innovations, graphics, and accessibility features that bring Homeworld into the modern era. And one third is something entirely new. Something like War Games.

War Games blends RTS games and roguelikes to create something entirely new. Either alone or with two friends, you brave a series of randomized combat encounters and outfit your armadas with game-breakingly powerful upgrades to turn the tides against relentless enemy assaults. Like any good roguelike, our hope is that the seemingly endless permutations of upgrades, fleet compositions, objectives, and bosses results in an experience that keeps you and your friends saying “One more run?”.

But how do we achieve that exactly? Well, let me tell you about Artifacts.


Artifacts are the big experience-defining system of War Games. If you’ve played other roguelikes, you might know these as boons, relics, or auras. Whatever you call them, they have one purpose: break the rules of the game you’re playing in spectacular ways. In War Games, an Artifact might result in something small — like giving your strikecraft some bonus speed. Or it might be something that turns your whole combat strategy on its head as your slow, tanky Assault Frigates transform into destructive close-quarter bruisers you send screaming into the enemy frontline.

Artifacts are, mostly, grouped into what I called Patterns and Upgrades. If Homeworld 3 were a fantasy RPG, then:

  • A Pattern is like your ship’s class — it describes what that ship can do and where its strengths and weaknesses are. Applying a Pattern to a ship can radically change its capabilities, like turning those aforementioned Assault Frigates into deadly frontline brawlers with the Berserker Pattern.
  • Upgrades then let you specialize that Pattern (or class). Instead of being a total overhaul, Upgrades zero in on a specific characteristic and enhance or tweak it. You might enhance a ship’s speed or range, or give it a special ability, for example.

Patterns are also mutually exclusive. You can’t pick two for the same ship. Once your Assault Frigates are Berserkers, you’ll need to wait for your next run before you can make them Wardens. Most Artifacts have one or more benefits and a penalty. Extra damage output and speed at the cost of taking more damage — or firing slower.



Once you apply a Pattern to a ship, though, your mad-scientist experiments are just getting started. Each Pattern unlocks associated and unique Upgrades that let you further customize your ships. Upgrades take the tactical niche of the Pattern and extend it, multiply it, tweak it, refine it.

For Berserkers, you might choose an Upgrade that reduces their damage but gives them passive self-repair, vastly increasing their durability in a fight. Or maybe you think playing it safe is for suckers and opt to choose an Upgrade where they take more damage but also deal more damage? Sure, you might sacrifice a lot more than you would otherwise, but at least your Support Frigates won’t be bored. And, hey, a pyrrhic victory is still a victory.

Berserkers are just one of over 30 Patterns that will be available at launch. Each one represents a tactical table flip on Homeworld’s meta. Consider the Ranger Pattern for your Recon strikecraft that increases their vision and weapon range. This Pattern is all about out-ranging your opponents, seeing them before they see you. It’s quietly one of the more powerful options for a build. One of its Upgrades, Ranger - Precision, takes all your vision bonuses and adds them to the damage output of the unit, making them very effective and very inexpensive glass cannons.

Each Pattern has three associated Upgrades, and many Upgrades can be taken multiple times. They stack, too. No diminishing returns trying to keep you in check. If you find a powerful strategy, we want you to leverage it. Go nuts. Break the game.



So far we’ve zeroed in on the impact of just one Pattern. All of this theorycrafting gets exponentially more fascinating once you start applying multiple Patterns to different ship classes. One of the first pairings that a lot of our playtesters found was combining the Ranger Pattern, for Recon ships with massive vision, and the Sniper Pattern for the Ion Cannon Frigate. The Sniper Pattern all but disables the vision of the Ion Cannon Frigate, but in exchange massively extends its weapon range. It becomes a sniper in need of dedicated spotters. This kind of synergy is ridiculously fun in co-op. You and a friend coordinating spotting and sniping in perfect unison, all in the spirit of jolly cooperation. Check out this stream by SpiffingBrit to see a strategy like this in action.

A number of Artifacts are able to drop by default. Others are unlocked by earning Profile Experience Points, which are awarded for killing ships, keeping yours alive, completing objectives, and more. Finally, there are some Artifacts restricted by Challenges — little achievement-like tasks you’ll have to go out of your way to complete. Since War Games is a cooperative experience, nothing asks you to play suboptimally or in a way that should frustrate your friends (“Hey, bud, mind explaining why you have 40 Resource Harvesters?”). Challenges instead nudge you to step beyond your comfort zone, like trying different starting fleets. They range in complexity and difficulty, from the simple “Kill X enemy ships in War Games” to completing specific objectives to simply winning runs.

Artifacts aren’t the only variables you contend with in War Games, however. Each run you embark on will task you with surviving three consecutive missions. These are chosen from a small pool of levels, and, adding even more variability, each mission pulls from a pool of objectives that you have to complete.



Not only will you need to account for the terrain of each level your missions are based in, but you’ll also have to adapt your strategies to the objectives you’re given. If you need to hold out at a given position, Artifacts that increase movement speed are going to be less desirable than those that increase weapon range or durability. But be careful when locking yourself into a specific niche. If your next objective is to ambush some enemies transporting high value goods, that extra mobility will sure be helpful.

The hope is that once you start to sink your teeth into War Games, you’re going to be delighted by just how much the experience changes with each run. What strategies worked one time might not be so favorable the next time. You’ll always have to make impactful decisions and manage the risk and reward of your fleet compositions. Throw in a few friends, and the experience deepens in new ways as you specialize your fleets and coordinate to cover each other’s weaknesses.

As you play War Games and develop strong strategies and learn which tactics are most appropriate given the objective, you’ll naturally win more and more. That growing sense of mastery is one of the big emotional goals we want you to experience. But, at the same time, we also don’t want War Games to become boring. So we’ve been cooking up something special since we showcased the mode last summer: Our modular difficulty system.


This is a purely optional feature aimed at those who want more spice in their War Games. Before embarking on a run, you can set the difficulty to one of 10 different tiers. Each tier adds a unique modifier that’ll change the game up in some unfavorable (but exciting) ways. The kicker is that higher difficulty tiers also include the lower-tier modifiers. If you just want a pinch of spice, you might select Difficulty Tier 1, which results in larger waves of enemies to contend with throughout your run.

Climb the tiers, and those modifiers start to stack up in some grueling ways. One reduces the quantity of RUs in the engagement zone, making every loss sting just a little bit more. Another adds a second objective to a specific mission, doubling the work needed to achieve victory (and the likelihood you won’t). As you push yourself into higher difficulties, the pressure will slowly increase until you’re taking on missions that only The Demigods of RTS Games will be able to conquer.

It won’t ever be mandatory to engage with the difficulty system. You won’t need to worry about missing out on certain Artifacts, Fleets, or levels — all of that is unlockable regardless of what difficulty you play on. There will be some aesthetic rewards, though, like special profile pictures that’ll signal your mastery of War Games. This new difficulty mode gives you the option of adding some hot sauce to this tactical burrito — how hot is entirely up to you. If you win five runs of War Games in a row, maybe try the next difficulty up. It just might add a little more spice — one more thing to consider when choosing Artifacts or your approach to an objective. Another complication to encounter, adapt, and overcome.



Skirmish Mode: Unveiled



While War Games offers an innovative and fresh way to play Homeworld, there’s also nothing quite like the thrill of clashing against a human opponent — or a good old fashioned comp stomp. Skirmish Mode has been a staple of Homeworld since the very beginning, so there was never any doubt that we’d want to include it in Homeworld 3

For the uninitiated, Skirmish Mode is where you can go head to head against friends, strangers, and the computer in classic deathmatch-style brawls. In Homeworld 3, Skirmish Mode supports up to a max of six players and you can set teams freely. Engage in a chaotic free-for-all, square off in 2v2v2 or 3v3 — or go with some other permutation like 4v2 or 5v1. You can also substitute in computer players with differing difficulty levels or adjust settings like how many resources players start with or whether the game ends when your mothership is destroyed.



All of this is supported by matchmaking, which has filters to help you find the exact type of Skirmish you’re looking for along with geographic filters to control what regions you’re playing in.

When Homeworld 3 launches, we’re going to have eight skirmish maps available to fight in — each one a unique battlefield with its own terrain and layout that you’ll learn to exploit as your fleets clash with opposing teams. But, thanks to our partnership with Mod.io, you’ll soon have dozens (if not many more) Skirmish maps to choose from thanks to our brilliant community of modders.

Regardless of what platform you’re playing on, the in-game Mod.io browser will let you seamlessly download custom, player-made Skirmish maps anyone can make using the Unreal Editor. If you’ve never modded before, we’ll also provide some light documentation that’ll teach you how to make your own Skirmish maps. While we won’t officially support any mods beyond Skirmish maps, intrepid modders are welcome to use the Unreal Editor to experiment and dig even deeper.



One final reason you may want to venture into Skirmish mode is because it’s also where you can play as the other major faction in Homeworld 3: The Incarnate. We’ve been tight-lipped about this enigmatic armada because of their role in Homeworld 3’s story, but what I will say is that Incarnate fleets present a unique departure from the strategies and strengths of the Hiigaran navy. You’ve heard of strength in numbers, right? Well, Incarnate flip that philosophy around with an emphasis on Corvettes that can dish — and take — a beating. There’s plenty of fun nuances to discover with Incarnate ships, like Resource Collectors with a special ability that’ll make them useful in a fight.



Captain on deck



Hey everyone, Iain here.

As someone whose job is so often focused on planning for the future, it’s easy to forget to stop and take a look at how far you’ve come. It’s been over four years since we first announced Homeworld 3 — and longer still since we actually decided to make it. To say it’s been a unique road we’ve walked is an understatement.

It’s rare (and maybe even unheard of) to announce a game before even beginning pre-production and involve the community from day one. But, for us, it was always the obvious choice. The reality is, while Gearbox and Blackbird Interactive have worked tirelessly to be good shepherds to this series, Homeworld doesn’t endure because of us. It lives because of you.



You who carve Hiigaran crests in your Halloween pumpkins. Or get Homeworld tattoos. Or write us letters waxing nostalgic about the first time you booted Homeworld 1 up, unaware of how a humble strategy game would leave an indelible mark upon your life. Who cheered and rallied behind us when we endeavored to make Deserts of Kharak and, now, Homeworld 3. Homeworld lives because each of you, in your own way, has carried the memories of this series forward.

Thousands of you shared your thoughts and feelings with us throughout this journey. Sharing what Homeworld means to you, what defines it as a game experience, and where you wanted to see Homeworld 3 go. We have taken that all to heart and crafted what we hope will be your best Homeworld experience to date. A game that will evoke the same emotions that made the original Homeworld such a timeless treasure. And now, after years of toiling, the moment is quickly approaching where you’ll get to judge that for yourself.



When we announced Homeworld 3 was beginning development at PAX West 2019, we were overwhelmed by the response. We read all the articles, social media comments, and emails we could. We laughed at just how many of you responded with one simple phrase: “Shut up and take my money!”

Well, now it's time for me to shut up.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1840080/Homeworld_3/

Homeworld 3 - Behind the Scenes Trailer

Hype trailer for an upcoming documentary made in partnership with PC Gamer looking at the development of Homeworld 3. The documentary contains behind the scenes interviews with the development team. The full documentary will be available in December.

Homeworld 3 will explore an all-new story in the Homeworld universe. Imogen S'Jet, a scientist and Karan S’Jet's successor, must become Fleet Command to help solve the mystery behind The Anomaly, a threat which endangers the galaxy's future.

Homeworld 3 is an immersive cinematic experience that takes the series’ iconic 3D RTS gameplay to the next level with innovative features like cover-based tactics and physics-based ballistics simulation making space combat feel more dynamic than ever.

Players can also enjoy the robust competitive multiplayer Skirmish mode or recruit comrades to fight together in War Games, a new cooperative mode which fuses Homeworld's strategic gameplay with roguelike challenge and progression.

👇 PRE-ORDER HOMEWORLD 3 👇


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1840080/Homeworld_3/
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