Last updated: 19 October 2026

Valor Mortis Release Date & What to Expect at Launch

One More Level and Lyrical Games moved Valor Mortis off its original September date to avoid a stacked release window — and delivered it day one on Xbox Game Pass as promised. Here's the timeline, sourced from the developers' own announcements, plus how the launch itself went.

01Release Date: October 13, 2026

Valor Mortis released on October 13, 2026 for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S — all three platforms simultaneously, with no timed exclusivity. That date held firm after being reconfirmed in the game's story trailer announcement at gamescom's Opening Night Live on August 25, 2026.

It launched day one on Xbox Game Pass (both the console catalog and PC Game Pass), exactly as the publisher's press materials promised. It did not join PlayStation Plus's Game Catalog, but PS5 players on the Premium tier got a free, time-limited trial at launch — see our Game Pass guide for the details.

02Why the Date Moved from September 24

Valor Mortis originally carried a September 24, 2026 release date, announced alongside its first gameplay demo in June 2026. One More Level and Lyrical Games pushed it back roughly three weeks to October 13.

The developers were explicit about the reason: September 2026 turned into an unusually crowded month for major releases, and they wanted Valor Mortis — and players' wallets — some breathing room rather than competing directly for attention and sales in that window.

The extra weeks also gave the team more time to act on feedback from the public demo before locking the final build.

03What Shipped at Launch

• Platforms: PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S.
• Xbox Game Pass: Available day one, on console and PC.
• Cast: César Award-winning actor Vincent Cassel voices Napoleon Bonaparte, confirmed in a June 2026 casting announcement and showcased again in the gamescom 2026 story trailer.
• Editions and price: A Standard Edition at $39.99 and a Deluxe Edition at $59.99. The Deluxe Edition bundles a weapon-skin cosmetic pack (with more planned) plus access to a story expansion the studio has said is coming in 2027 — no name, scope, or date for that expansion has been announced yet.
• Reception: Early reviews were mixed-to-positive, roughly 6/10–9/10 across outlets, and Steam user reviews sat in the low-to-mid 80s percent positive in the first days. Critics and players consistently praised the first-person combat and atmosphere while flagging technical issues, uneven difficulty spikes, and a slow story start; One More Level said a day-one patch would address some of the balance complaints, though reviews published after launch still described the same rough edges.

04How Launch Went

Ahead of launch, One More Level ran a free Steam demo (available from June 2026) built from two trimmed-down chapters — a battlefield tutorial and a tougher Lighthouse level — rather than a slice of the full campaign, and warned that balance could shift before release.

That caution proved warranted: reviewers who played the finished game pointed to inconsistent hitboxes, a punishing early boss fight, and PC performance issues (stutter and occasional crashes reported even on higher-end setups) that One More Level has said it's working to address. None of that stopped the core combat loop from being the most consistently praised part of the game across critic reviews and early Steam user feedback.