Hela of Mice and Magic Release Date: 1 December 2026

Hela: of Mice & Magic releases on 1 December 2026, and it releases on that date everywhere at once. The digital version covers PC through Steam, the Epic Games Store and the Xbox PC App, plus PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2. The Harmony Edition, the only physical version, ships for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch 2 on the same day.

Most release-date questions are narrower than they look. What a buyer wants to know is whether one store, one country or one edition unlocks ahead of the others. For this launch the answer is no on all three counts. The date holds across digital stores, across the boxed run and across the subscription version, and it holds worldwide rather than rolling west with midnight.

The platform and version matrix

Two rows carry most of the decision. Xbox Series S has no disc drive, so the digital release is the only version that exists for it, and it is the one console in the family that cannot take the Harmony Edition at all. PC sits in the same position: no boxed copy is produced for Windows, and the Game Pass build is the same release sold on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Official media · Steam

Why one worldwide date is the notable part

Four publishing partners sit behind a single day. Knights Peak, a label of MY.GAMES, handles the global release. Boltray Games publishes in China, Shochiku publishes in Japan, and Microids produces and distributes the physical edition. A launch split across that many partners usually reaches some markets later, because each storefront certifies on its own calendar and each distributor sets its own warehouse date.

Here the split stays organisational. The date does not move between territories, and the boxed run is dated to the same day as the download. For anyone arranging time off or planning a download, that removes the usual arithmetic: there is no region to switch to, no store that opens a day early, and no time zone to subtract.

It also means the launch is a single event rather than a week of them. Reviews, first impressions and co-op sessions all land on the same day in every market, so the conversation about the game starts everywhere together instead of arriving in waves.

The date that arrives first: 9 November

The demo closes on 9 November 2026, three weeks before launch. It opened on 8 October and was originally tied to the end of Steam Next Fest; the end date moved to 9 November instead. Anyone weighing a purchase has that window to try the movement, the Froggy backpack and the Shade System without paying anything.

The demo is worth treating as its own appointment rather than a preview of the campaign. It runs thirty to sixty minutes, uses a map built only for it, and tells a self-contained story. Nothing earned in it carries into the retail build, so the closing date is a hard stop rather than a soft one. After 9 November those areas cannot be played again until the full game arrives.

Official media · Steam

There is no pre-order to place

No digital pre-order exists on any platform. The Steam page is a wishlist page: it takes a notification request, not a payment, and no digital price has been published. The console stores carry a dated listing without a price attached.

That leaves one commitment a buyer can make before launch, and it is the physical edition. The Harmony Edition is available for reservation through Microids and selected retailers, in limited numbers, for the three platforms that can read a disc or a cartridge. Everything else waits for 1 December.

What the physical run does differently

A boxed copy does not behave like a download. Retailers take reservations on their own schedules and dispatch when stock reaches their warehouses, so the arrival date is set by the store rather than by the launch. A copy sent out early can sit with a courier over the release weekend, and a copy ordered late can arrive after the digital version has already been playable for days.

The contents do not vary by retailer. The Harmony Edition carries the same five items wherever it is sold: the game on disc or cartridge, a premium box, a digital soundtrack, a double-sided poster that includes a map, and a forty-eight page softcover art book titled The Heart of Hela. The age rating is PEGI 3 across the run, and stock is limited to the retail channels Microids supplies.

Who actually has to buy a copy

Game Pass changes the maths on one side of the launch. Subscribers on Xbox Series X|S and on PC can start playing on 1 December without a purchase, because the game joins the service on its first day. The PlayStation and Switch versions have no equivalent, so those two platforms are the ones where the date is also a purchase decision rather than just a download date.

That difference shapes the first week. A player who owns both a Series X and a PS5 can use the subscription to try the game and still keep the option of a separate purchase elsewhere. A player who only owns a PS5 or a Switch has nothing to test the retail build until the store unlocks it on the morning of 1 December.

What changes on the day itself

On 1 December the game becomes available in three ways at once: a purchase on Steam, the Epic Games Store or a console store; a download through Xbox Game Pass on Xbox Series X|S and PC; and a physical copy for anyone who reserved one. The PC build is Windows only, with no macOS or Linux version, and it asks for fifteen gigabytes of storage.

The demo save is not part of any of those routes. That story ends with the demo, and the retail game opens with the witch ill and her smallest familiar sent out to keep her guard magic running. The release date is the point where the full version of that story becomes playable, on every platform, on the same day.

One consequence is easy to miss. Because there is no pre-load window and no early access period, the first hour of 1 December is also the first hour anyone can see the finished build outside the demo. Launch-day impressions and the first co-op sessions all begin from zero on the same date.