For Honor: Everything you need to know, release date, price, beta and season pass info, merchandise and pre-order deals

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Ubisoft take a chance on something new, but its upcoming online hack and slash title For Honor looks set to change that. With creative director Jason VandenBerghe leading the team, whose previous works include Far Cry 3 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, For Honor will finally answer the question that’s plagued history buffs for years. Who was better – medieval knights, samurai or vikings? (The correct answer is Vikings)

To prepare you for this mighty clash of clans next year, we’ve rounded up everything we know about the game so far, including prices, season pass info, release date and pre-order bonuses. We’ll also update this article with more information about merchandise and sales data once it’s available.

For Honor release date, beta and formats

It might not be the most romantic game to be released in 2017, but For Honor is releasing on February 14th for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Lucky players were also be able to participate in a closed beta at the end of January, which allowed them to experience the lands of Ashfled, Valkenheim and Myre before the game officially launches. However, an open beta will also be running between February 9th and 12th, giving players access to nine playable heroes, six maps and four game modes.

What is For Honor?

For Honor is an online 4v4 action melee game centered on huge, epic battles between medieval knights, vikings and samurai warriors. It’s a brand-new IP from Ubisoft Montreal and Jason VandenBerghe and it’s being published by Ubisoft.

A single-player and co-op campaign will be available alongside the main multiplayer mode, but both parts of the game are very similar. Players can join whatever faction they like, and they’ll then be able to choose from a further four classes within those factions. Like many modern online multiplayer games, matches will also be populated by dozens of AI minion characters, but these will be much weaker than participating players.

For Honor isn’t simply about mowing down as many opponents as possible, however. When players encounter another warrior on the battlefield, they’ll enter the game’s tactical "Art of Battle" duelling system. During this mode, players can alter the positioning of their weapon to exploit enemy weaknesses and counter incoming attacks. You’ll also be able to adjust the strength of your own attacks and use special abilities.

Ubisoft has also confirmed there will be an overarching meta-game called Faction War in For Honor. Not to be confused with the War of the Faction pre-launch event, Faction War tracks the performance of players from each faction across all platforms over the course of each 10-week

multiplayer season. At the end of each season, players will receive rewards based on their performance and faction rank. The Faction War then resets and will enter an off-season period before resuming again at a later date.

For Honor Season Pass

For Honor’s Season Pass can be purchased alongisde the full game or through the Gold Edition. It will include six all-new Heroes that are available for seven days before they’re released to the rest of the game’s player base, as well as a 30-day Champion Status, which will give players more experience and additional loot.

The Season Pass also includes six elite outfits to customise their new Heroes, and a Day One War Pack. This entails an exclusive sunbeam effect on emotes for all Heroes (yes, really), three exclusive emblem outlines and three scavenger crates to unlock additional gear.

All Season Pass content will be available at launch on February 14th with the exception of the six post-launch Heroes and their elite outfits. These will be released gradually in batches of two at the beginning of a new Season of the Faction War, the game’s persistent meta-game.

After the seven-day early access period, these Heroes can be unlocked via the game’s in-game Steel currency, which will be given out for completing matches and in-game challenges.

Meanwhile, additional post-launch content, such as new maps, modes and equipment, will be available for free to all players.

For Honor prices

At time of writing, these are the current pre-order prices available for For Honor through Ubisoft’s online Ubisoft Store:

• 54.99 for Standard PS4 and Xbox One physical editions
• 39.99 for Standard PC digital code

Ubisoft is also releasing a Deluxe edition of the game that includes a CD soundtrack, exclusive lithograph and additional in-game items. These comprise of a trio of helmet crests, an exclusive emblem and boost package and one execution mood effect. This is currently available for the same prices as the Standard edition of the game.

There’s also a Gold Edition of For Honor. This includes a copy of the game, season pass and the additional in-game items described above in the Deluxe Edition. This costs:

• 79.99 for Gold PS4 and Xbox One physical editions
• 64.99 for Gold PC digital code

There’s also a Collector’s Edition of the game that’s available exclusively on the Ubisoft Store. This includes the Gold Edition of the game, the CD soundtrack, a collector’s box, an exclusive lithograph and three distinct faction helmets made from metal that are mounted on a stand. The helmets have been made on a scale of one third their normal size. This costs:

• 119.99 for PS4 and Xbox One physical editions
• 114.99 for PC physical edition

The Collector’s Edition is the only bundle that offers a physical copy of the game’s PC release.

Meanwhile, GAME‘s prices are as follows:

• 39.99 for Standard PC digital download code
• 44.99 for Standard PS4 and Xbox One physical editions
• 42.99 for Deluxe PC digital download code
• 49.99 for Deluxe PS4 and Xbox One physical editions
• 69.99 for Gold PC digital download code

Amazon, on the other hand has a wider range of options than GAME, mainly due to the addition of Xbox One digital download codes, and its prices are currently lower across the board:

• 39.99 for Standard and Deluxe PC digital download codes
• 42.74 for Standard PS4 and Xbox One physical editions
• 54.99 for Standard Xbox One digital download code
• 54.99 for Deluxe Xbox One digital download code
• 64.99 for Gold PC digital download code
• 87.99 for Gold Xbox One digital download code

ShopTois selling both physical and retail versions of For Honor at the following prices, and all of them come with the Legacy Battle Pack DLC. This includes three exclusive Hero outfits.

• 42.85 for Standard PS4 and Xbox One physical editions
• 55.00 for Standard PC digital download
• 62.99 for Deluxe PC digital download
• 87.99 for Gold PC digital download

Tesco is only stocking physical versions of the Standard PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game, both of which are priced at 42.74, but Sainsbury’s and Asda have yet to open pre-orders. Argos is also only stocking physical versions of the Standard PS4 and Xbox One editions, but these are currently priced at 44.99 each.

Digital versions of For Honor will also be available direct from the PlayStation Store and Xbox Games Store.

PlayStation Store:

• 54.99 for Deluxe digital edition
• 79.99 for Gold digital edition

Xbox Games Store:

• 54.99 for Deluxe digital edition
• 79.99 for Gold digital edition

For Honor merchandise

At time of writing, no merchandise has been officially announced for the game just yet, but we’ll update this section if anything changes.