Owlcat Games has set a launch date for its next Warhammer 40,000 role-playing game. Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy arrives on January 28, 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, where it will be sold through Steam, the Epic Games Store and GOG. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is also planned, but it will follow at a later, as-yet-unannounced date. The studio marked the news with a release date announcement trailer and a short list of deadlines that matter to anyone who has already bought in early.
A party-based cRPG about hunting heresy
Dark Heresy is a story-driven, party-based cRPG set in the Calixis Sector, a corner of the Imperium where cults, conspiracies and agents of the Archenemy are spreading everywhere from the slums of the underhives to the spires where the elite live. You do not start as a powerful Inquisitor. You start as a lowly acolyte of the Inquisition, and you build a war band of zealots and outcasts to investigate crimes and apostasy before the rot spreads too far.
That premise puts investigation at the centre of the design rather than treating it as a framing device between fights. Owlcat describes cases that can be solved in different ways, and it is explicit that the method is your responsibility: you can chase the truth at any cost, or sacrifice innocents when it suits you. Either way, decisions carry consequences, and the studio warns that not all of them will be the ones you intended.
The companions
The party you assemble is the main draw for fans of Owlcat's earlier work, and Dark Heresy leans on a broad cast. Among the recruits are Cogg, an abhuman; Saro, a dangerous psyker; and Discordance, a Pariah. Two xenos can also join: Laarthyr, a mysterious Aeldari Corsair, and Ra'akhti, a flesh-eating Kroot. On the human side there is Haymar, a fighter from the death world of Catachan; Chorda, a Rogue Trader who is, by Owlcat's own description, bored; and Touma, who is described only as inscrutable.
Each companion comes with an agenda and a reason for joining the Inquisition, and each brings skills that pay off in two ways: in combat, and as advice during investigations. Recruiting abhumans, psykers and xenos into an Inquisitorial war band is exactly the kind of choice the setting treats as dangerous, so who you trust is likely to matter as much as how you build them.
Revamped tactical combat
When investigations turn violent, Dark Heresy switches to turn-based tactical combat, which Owlcat says has been revamped. The development footage the studio has published shows a familiar top-down layout with an initiative bar along the top, action and movement points, ability hotbars, and area-of-effect templates painted onto the battlefield. It is a structure that will look natural to anyone who played Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, Owlcat's previous game in the setting, though the studio is clearly positioning this as its own system rather than a reskin.
Dates to know before launch
Alongside the release date, Owlcat flagged three practical deadlines for people already following the game:
- Founder's Packs stay on sale on the official Dark Heresy website until early January. They include a name in the credits and in-game exclusive rewards, and they are also the route to the Collector's Edition.
- Collector's Edition shipping is planned to begin shortly after launch. Owlcat is asking backers to log into their account on the site and confirm their shipping address is current.
- The beta closes on January 7, 2027, three weeks before release, so the team can prepare for launch. Founders currently have access to it until then.
Owlcat says more news is coming before launch. For now, the important part is settled: Dark Heresy has a date, it lands on every major platform except Switch 2 on day one, and anyone holding a beta key has under two months left to play it.
