Heroes of Might and Magic Community Sites Launch SaveHeroes.org (http://www.saveheroes.org/)
Dedicated Fans and Players Want to Delay Game for Higher Quality Release

Worldwide, Jan. 26, 2006.

A group of Heroes of Might and Magic community Websites today launched a collaborative effort to persuade Ubisoft executives to delay the launch of their highly anticipated title Heroes of Might and Magic 5. SaveHeroes.Org is a concerted community effort to further that cause.

This effort, and the reasons behind it, started largely because of the open beta test, which started on GameSpy on Monday, January 23rd. With Heroes of Might and Magic 4 having received poor sales in comparison to its predecessor, Heroes 5 is seen by most as a make or break game. If it fails, so will the entire Might and Magic franchise. If it succeeds, then the product line would gain the support it needs for a long term at Ubisoft.

With these facts in mind, community websites, including Celestial Heavens, The Oracle League, Age of Heroes, Heroes Community, The Genies Lamp, Guardians Grove, and many others started posting petitions and banners to "Save Heroes 5". Not long after, these same leaders gathered to try and organize a collaborative effort to attempt to show Ubisoft that releasing an unfinished game would not go over well at all.

After the rough start and continued issues of the Open Beta, and some investigation, these leaders realized that there was little time to act. Ubisoft's fiscal year ends on March 31, coinciding with the release date. Ubisoft was also the target of a takeover bid in December of 2004, something they are not likely to forget easily. Wanting to hit or exceed their yearly targets could be a reason for the March 31 release date.

However, such short-term plans are exactly what doomed Heroes 4, New World Computing and The 3DO Company. SaveHeroes.Org is now open to try and prevent such a thing from happening.

I hope it works! :cool:

I signed the petition yesterday. :)

Sad that it should come to this though.

As of 2pm GMT today (Sunday 29th) administrators of the major Heroes of Might and Magic fan sites around the world have signed a News Suppression Pact in protest to a premature release of Heroes of Might and Magic 5.

The pact was signed by Age of Heroes (http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com) (International), Archangel Castle (http://www.archangelcastle.com) (France), Behemoth's Lair (http://mib.site.9o.pl/jb_h5/) (Poland), Castle Gobs (http://www.castlegobs.nl) (International), Celestial Heavens (http://www.celestialheavens.com) (International), Drachenwald (http://www.drachenwald.net) (Germany), The Genie's Lamp (http://www.the-genies-lamp.com/) (International), Guardian's Grove (http://www.guardiansgrove.com) (International), Heroic Corner (http://heroes.ag.ru) (Russia), La Torre de Marfil (http://www.torredemarfil.org) (Spain) and The Oracle League (http://www.oracleleague.com) (International). All other HOMM websites are also invited to join this pact.

As representatives of the online HOMM Community, we, the pact members, strongly believe that Heroes of Might and Magic 5 will not be of sufficient standard and quality if the release is rushed for March 2006. As admirers of HOMM series and supporters of the current Heroes 5 potential, we will not tolerate a blow delivered by the release of an incomplete and unbalanced game.

As an action of protest, following this announcement, no news or updates will be posted on our web sites. Additionally, Heroes of Might and Magic 5 information will be removed from our web sites. We request that Ubisoft officially confirms that the release date of Heroes of Might and Magic 5 will be delayed past March 2006, for a period of time sufficient to develop a balanced and fully functional game. We do not regard the announcement made on Gamespot as true until Ubisoft issues official confirmation.

As an indication of support for our protest, the SaveHeroes.org Petition (http://www.saveheroes.org/petition/) has been signed by over 1500 people in less than three days and received 30000 unique visitors. During the last week our web sites received more than 150000 visits.

We encourage all Heroes of Might and Magic fans to join our cause by signing the SaveHeroes.Org Petition (http://www.saveheroes.org/petition/) and to stop posting on the official Ubisoft forums and to use our forums instead.

Additionally, you can help our cause by inviting your friends to sign the petition, by e-mailing Ubisoft and by notifying the media and game retailers about this situation. For more ways to help, see SaveHeroes.Org (http://www.saveheroes.org).

Castle Gobs, hum I wonder who that could be? Well I am surely in support you Ribannah and your sites efforts.

I expect you are correct to pesume this is a critical release for the series and I would hate to see them shoot it in the head now. My fear is that they already know all fo this and have decided that short term gains are more important.

The price of the stock is more of a concern that good proucts or fans. Best of luck for all of our sakes.

Like online petitions have ever worked.

Like online petitions have ever worked.

Heroes V Has Been Saved

The producer of Heroes of Might and Magic V, Fabrice Cambounet, has announced today on the official forum that Ubisoft will delay the release of the game.

Ubisoft’s decision means that the development team will have more time to finalize the game, add features and remove bugs. The publisher will not repeat the errors made by 3DO a couple of years ago, but instead deliver a product that is on par with the other Ubisoft games that were released during the past few months. It also means that the voice of the community has been heard, thanks to over 2500 signatures and numerous mentions on gaming news sites. We wish to thank you for the tremendous support you have given us over the past few days. Your feedback about the controversial News Suppression Pact was also very important: it showed us that the community is mature, dedicated to its franchise and able to debate the choice of action that was chosen. We hope you understand that time was running out, that there was still a strong possibility to see Ubisoft confirm the March release date that is still showing on various Web sites, and that it was extremely important to make sure that the Might and Magic series didn’t get another unsuccessful game. Ubisoft also deserves our gratitude. They listened to our requests, understood the reasons behind our petition and committed themselves to creating a game worthy of the Heroes name.

As a consequence to today’s announcement, some pages of the SaveHeroes.org site, such as How Can I Help, will be removed. The News Suppression Pact is no longer in effect. The Heroes V coverage will be brought back on all community sites and you can expect to read more good news on their pages during the next few days. Again, we thank you for your patience and your support.


Good stuff, lads! :D.

Like online petitions have ever worked. Well, this one has. Kinda changes your view on the world, doesn't it? :)

Good news. :)

However, UbiSoft might have decided to delay the release even before the petition started... This we'll never know..

It can only be good news, but just how good we shall see. I hope they are not just wsting some time and accomplishing little.

Well, other companies might not know if they had already decided to delay or not... it's good the fans stood up for what they think is right. Rushed games are stupid.

Glad to see they did. :)