Company of Heroes 3 has been delayed until 2023

The RTS sequel was previously due to be released in November

Sega has announced that Company of Heroes 3 has been delayed until 2023.

The third instalment in the popular real-time strategy series was due to be released on November 17, but has now been held back for a further three months.

The game will now be released on February 23, 2023, giving developer Relic Entertainment more time to refine the experience before release.

According to Sega, Relic “required some additional time to work on overall improvement, balancing, and fine-tuning of Company of Heroes 3 to ensure they’ll meet player expectations and deliver the deepest tactical experience in the series yet.”

Company of Heroes 3 was first announced in July 2021, with players able to download and play a pre-alpha version on Steam that day.

Since then, Relic has implemented a number of changes and added new features based on player feedback.

These include a “stronger focus on visual grit and details during battles”, improvements to the game’s camera positioning and clearer mini-map information.

Important Company of Heroes 3 Update pic.twitter.com/z0Pg7PsE10
— Company Of Heroes (@CompanyOfHeroes) October 4, 2022

Relic also says that by analysing players’ behvaiour in the multiplayer pre-alpha, which was released in November 2021, it’s been able to improve battlegroups, their upgrade trees, their units and their call-in abilities.

In a statement about the delay, Relic’s general manager Justin Dowdeswell said: “Working with the Company of Heroes development community over the last years has been an invaluable experience and we’re immensely grateful for all of their contributions to Company of Heroes 3 so far.

“We want to deliver the biggest and most immersive game in our franchise’s history, which means we need a bit more time for bug fixing, balancing, and polishing to ensure our players have a fantastic experience at launch.”

The game is powered by the Essence Engine 5, the latest evolution of Relic’s proprietary RTS tech, and will feature a dynamic campaign map in which players command ground, air and naval forces and build supply lines as they lead the Allies’ campaign to retake mainland Italy.