Valor Mortis skips pre-orders and undercuts at $39.99

Valor Mortis will cost $39.99 when it launches on 13 October, and it will not be sold for pre-order. One More Level, the Kraków studio behind Ghostrunner, set out both decisions in an announcement, framing the price against a season it describes as unusually crowded.

The studio's own reasoning is blunt. "We believe the game has the quality, fidelity, and playtime in its 20-hour story to go toe-to-toe with many 'full price' titles," it wrote. "Still, this Fall is stacked and there's high demand for your time and money." The price is $39.99, €39.99 and 149.99 zł across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC.

No pre-orders, deliberately

There is no pre-order option and no pre-purchase bonus. "We want to let the completed version of our game do the talking," the announcement says. "You'll be able to buy it when you have a full picture of Valor Mortis' quality, creativity and craft at launch." That is a deliberate refusal of the tool mid-sized releases normally use to bank a first fortnight of sales before reviews land.

A Deluxe Edition will also be sold at $59.99, €59.99 and 199.99 zł. It bundles a Major Story DLC that the studio says arrives next year along with a run of cosmetic packs between launch and that expansion. Free post-launch updates are promised as well.

A first-person soulslike from Ghostrunner's studio

Valor Mortis casts the player as a soldier of Napoleon's army who rises from death with supernatural powers. One More Level has been open that building a soulslike in first person was difficult work, and it arrives in October against one of the busiest release windows of the year. The studio's stated reasoning is the subtext of the whole announcement: this is a considered price rather than a discount, and it expects the game to justify itself without a pre-order cushion.

Our opinion

Saying the quiet part out loud is rarer than the number itself. Studios usually discount and let the internet infer the reason; One More Level has effectively stated that it is not GTA VI and has no intention of charging as though it were. Refusing pre-orders is the bolder half of that. Pre-orders are how a mid-sized launch protects itself, and giving them up means the studio expects the game to be good on day one in front of people who have not paid in advance. The $39.99 deserves the applause it will get. The empty pre-order button is the part that shows the studio has thought about why it is asking for less.