Company of Heroes 3 is coming to Xbox – here’s how Relic made it possible

For almost two decades, the Company of Heroes series defined what it means to be an action-packed real-time strategy game, covering multiple fronts of World War II and shedding light on the stories of the real people who lived and died during each conflict. Xbox has always been a great platform that respects the RTS genre, with classics like that Halo Wars franchises and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II. That’s why we’re excited to announce that the series is landing on Xbox Series X|S for the first time ever Company of Heroes 3 Console Edition.

You might be wondering: how exactly does developer Relic Entertainment build an RTS game for Xbox when historically the genre has always relied on the PC mouse and keyboard? Thank God, Company of Heroes 3 Console Edition is built from the ground up for consoles and offers a host of new features that will make you the most effective commander on the battlefield, without sacrificing the features that fans of both platforms have come to expect. Whether it’s the shores of Italy or the vast deserts of North Africa, we’ve got you covered when you play with the controller.

Check out the video below to get a first impression Company of Heroes 3 Console Edition in action:

A full tactical break is a game changer

Longtime RTS fans know that one of the genre’s biggest hurdles is how quickly you can get overwhelmed if you don’t play smart. main under Company of Heroes 3 Console EditionThe new feature of is full tactical pause, which can dramatically change the course of a skirmish in a split second, allowing players to play at their own pace.

“RTS games are inherently complex,” says game designer Andy Fedorchuk. “The challenge was to give players easy access to the tools they would expect. What is the best way for us to set people up to easily perform the core actions of RTS gameplay?”

As the name suggests, Full Tactical Pause allows you to pause the action at any time, giving you a valuable moment to analyze the battlefield for threats or opportunities and then issue orders. Notice your infantry being flanked? Stop and set up an order to reposition them to better bolster their defenses. Are the vulnerable sides of an enemy tank exposed? Set up an order to blow it up with your own tank or anti-tank infantry. Everyone loves it when a plan works out.

Building the perfect control system

With the number of units, tactics, and resources to keep track of in most RTS games, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the genre could only function with a mouse and keyboard. However, Relic Entertainment has built Company of Heroes 3 Console Edition from the ground up with controller support in mind and made some changes that we think players will enjoy. Chief among these changes is the new radial menu, which allows you to easily select a unit’s order.

“Getting the controller layout in a good spot was a lot of playtesting and iteration, which felt like it HAD to be there,” says Fedorchuk. “We thought a lot about what actions players would take most often and set up units of different types to have their most commonly used actions readily available. It’s a bit like trying to predict future actions.”

Still want to use mouse and keyboard on Xbox? Relic supports this from day one, too.

Refinement of the user interface

Last but not least, Relic has overhauled the game’s UI to make things even more comfortable for console gamers who prefer to sit back and control with a controller.

Eagle-eyed viewers may notice the lack of a command card at the bottom of the console version’s screen. It made sense to remove the command card for consoles as those players will not have a mouse to select commands one at a time.

Instead, players can use the left trigger to quickly pull up the command dial and push the thumbstick in the appropriate direction. Suppose you want to demolish a house that is currently occupied by enemy forces. Select a group of engineers by dragging a box over it (which grows from the center of your screen the longer you hold the button if you want to select multiple units), press the “Move Here” command and open Then use the Radial Wheel and select the Load Satchel command and select the house. Then watch in amazement as the building bursts and shatters into pieces, eliminating the enemy infantry inside.

That’s not all the game brings to the table, of course, but we’re excited to show ours Xbox fans more in the coming months. Company of Heroes 3 Console Edition Coming to Xbox Series X|S in 2023.

For more information about Company of Heroes 3go to www.companyofheroes.com, where players can also sign up for CoH Development – Relic’s community feedback platform. You can continue to follow the game youtube, Twitterand Facebook.