Owlcat Games has set the date: Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy launches January 28, 2027 on PC through GOG, Steam and the Epic Games Store, plus PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The follow-up to Rogue Trader swaps starships and dynasties for the Inquisition, and it puts you at the bottom of the ladder as a lowly acolyte hunting heretics in the Calixis Sector. A Switch 2 version is coming too, with details later.
From Acolyte to Inquisitor in the Calixis Sector
Owlcat’s announcement on November 9 lays out the setup. The Calixis Sector is full of heresy, from the slums under the Imperium’s cities to the spires where the elite live, and cults, conspiracies and servants of the Archenemy are spreading everywhere. You start as an acolyte and build a war band of zealots and outcasts who investigate crimes and apostasy before they get out of hand.
Investigations sit at the center of the game. Owlcat has spent recent trailers on a detective system, and the studio says every case can be handled your way, whether you chase the truth at any cost or sacrifice innocents for your own gain. Each choice carries consequences, intended or not. Fights use what Owlcat calls revamped tactical combat, and the studio has described Dark Heresy as a turn-based cRPG from the start, like Rogue Trader before it.
Eight Companions, From Catachan to Kroot
The recruit list is where the 40K fan service lives. Owlcat names abhumans like Cogg, the psyker Saro, the Pariah Discordance, the Aeldari Corsair Laarthyr and the Kroot Ra’akhti, plus human companions like the Catachan fighter Haymar, the bored Rogue Trader Chorda and the hard-to-read Touma. Each one brings skills that matter in combat and advice that shapes how investigations play out, and each has their own agenda for joining up.
Whether a xenos or a psyker belongs in an Inquisitor’s war band is the kind of call the game leaves to you.
GOG Has It Listed for a DRM-Free Launch
GOG already has a Dark Heresy page live, so PC players who want an installer they keep can wishlist it there now. No store had a price posted when we checked GOG and Steam on November 10.
If you want in before launch, Owlcat still sells Founder’s Packs on its official site until the beginning of January, and founders get access to the current beta. That beta shuts down on January 7 so the team can prepare for release, which leaves a three-week gap before launch day.
Rogue Trader is the obvious warm-up. It is $14.99 on GOG right now, down from $49.99 until November 15 at 11:59pm PT, which is a lot of Warhammer cRPG for the wait. We also covered Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 when it launched on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S last month, and Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor just arrived on GOG if you want another classic-style cRPG while you wait.
16GB RAM and an RTX 3060 Ti Recommended
Steam lists only a recommended tier so far. Owlcat has not published minimum specs yet.
| Field | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Not published | Windows 10 |
| Processor | Not published | Intel Core i5-12600 / AMD Ryzen 5 5600 |
| Memory | Not published | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | Not published | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti / Radeon RX 6700 XT |
| DirectX | Not published | Version 12 |
| Storage | Not published | 40 GB |
A 12th-gen Core i5 and a 3060 Ti are a fair bar for 2027, so check your GPU before you buy. The rest is waiting until late January, when the Inquisition finally opens its doors to new acolytes.