Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition News

[h2]Greetings, Sire! Following it's announcement, Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition soared straight up the charts of the Steam RTS Fest to become the one of the most played demos across the entire event. The anticipated RTS remaster has now already claimed a milestone achievement of 150,000 wishlists and 130,000 total demo downloads![/h2]

The fan reception and huge outpouring of support for Stronghold Crusader DE has been super uplifting for us. Not bad at all considering the original came out at the same time as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Yu-Gi-Oh outside of Japan and Ben Affleck being voted Sexist Man Alive.

In celebration of this accomplishment, we’re taking a look at how our skilled art team has uplifted the game from its source files to create something that is not only polished but captures the essence of what made the original game so great.



With many pieces of the 2002 source material either built on archaic technology or completely absent, the art team had their work cut out for them. Not only did they have to recreate and render artwork to an elevated modern definition but to also match the essence of the original.

This goal, already difficult, even became contentious where key characters were concerned. However, whenever new assets or changes were made, the ever-present principle was to respect the original design and bring the definitive edition closer to the intended vision.

PSST: In case you missed it, we’ve also created a dev commentary video where Lead QA and Stronghold expert Josh shares exclusive tips and tricks for mastering Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition. Whether you’re a seasoned player or new to the series, Josh’s insights will help you dominate the battlefield!



[h2]Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition’s July 15th launch is rapidly approaching and we’ve got a lot more planned to give the game the best take-off possible, so stay tuned!
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[h2]Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition Demo V1.02 Update Notes:[/h2]

[h3]UPDATES[/h3]
- Additional Spanish and Italian speech
- Added SFX when rolling over the exit button
- Allow building sleep in post-tutorial
- Improvement to wall attack positioning


[h3]BUG FIXES[/h3]
- Stopped units from glitching (lagging) when flattening landscape
- Fixed apply options button appearing incorrectly
- Fixed Skirmish mini-map colours
- Fixed digging moat exploit
- Fixed visual depth sorting issue behind rocks
- Fixed invisible engineers
- Fixed mouse selection lag

[h3]We'd love to hear your insight on the demo! Every bit of feedback will help us make Stronghold games the best they can possibly be: https://forms.gle/p2JeRfSHFWAKMghW6[/h3]

[h2]Greetings Sire! Gird your loins and sharpen your steel because, 23 years after it first launched, we’re incredibly excited to announce Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition![/h2]

Travel back in time to the legendary crusades for the holy land in this new expanded definitive edition, releasing this year on July 15th 2025 with brand new content, elevated graphics and extensive player-requested features all rebuilt by game’s original developers!

This title is many people’s favourite old-school 2D RTS, so taking this cult favourite and elevating it for the modern player has been an endeavour of passion for us – one that is only possible because of the community’s clear desire for this kind of classic strategy experience. The best way we could think of thanking you for your support has been to go above and beyond, with new AIs, missions, modes and maps, as well as the Steam multiplayer and workshop integrations that the original could never have had.

We hope this collection of content helps bring you up to speed about what you can expect before you march back to the desert fortresses and arid plains of the past.

Wishlist Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition now ahead of the game’s full July 15 release!

[h3]--> Revealed during the Steam RTS Fest, this shiny new trailer showcases the depth of work and love poured into the remaster. We really hope you enjoy it![/h3]


[h3]--> Masterfully composed by the legendary bard of Stronghold himself, Robert L. Euvino, we’re proud to present ‘Caravan 2025’, produced exclusively for Stronghold Crusader DE.[/h3]



[h3]--> Firefly Studio Head Nick below provides a general breakdown of this new expanded remaster of the classic Stronghold title. What is it exactly? What are some of the things that have been changed? What are the new units based on? Find out all of that and more![/h3]



[h3]--> We’ve scoured the interwebs for your most pressing questions and we’re happy to present the Stronghold Crusader: DE Community Q&A! Whether it’s from the official Stronghold Discord, TikTok, subreddit, Twitter or elsewhere, we’ve tried to hit as many topics as we can while keeping things concise.[/h3]



[h3]Flex your might with 8 new playable units, 4 never-before-seen AI lords, a new co-op mode, larger maps, custom options for skirmish and many other improvements! Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition has been overhauled with new art, animations, audio, units, modes, missions, characters, larger maps and more.[/h3]






[h2]Revisit a reimagined strategy classic and play exactly the way you want to. Wishlist it now and be the first to know about future demos![/h2]

[h3]Greetings, Sire![/h3]

[h3]The Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition public demo has now been concluded.[/h3]

Thousands of you have donned your armour, taken up your weapons and journeyed back to the golden sands of the past and we can't thank you enough!

We're just as ecstatic as you are to return to this fan-favourite entry in the Stronghold series and give it the enhancement it deserves using modern hardware and game development tools.

Thanks to the vital insight you've provided through the feedback form and across social media, we're hard at work making the updates, changes and tweaks to make it the best possible version it can be.

[h3]Worry not though -- launch day is just a few short months away and we've got a lot planned between now and then.[/h3]

[h3]Stay tuned![/h3]

[h2] Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition Demo V1.01 Update Notes: [/h2]

[h3] UPDATES [/h3]

- Clicking on items in the stockpile and armoury inventory will now take you straight to its marketplace tab

- Fixed exploit where building deletion could be used to gain extra resources

- Added new Russian Speech

- Added missing animals back into the tutorial

- Added missing pause/unpause speech

[h3] BUG FIXES [/h3]

- Fixed most instances of a visual issue of units appearing to clip through the stockpile, and other map features

- Fixed an issue where changed refresh rate would not save

- Fixed an issue where music volume would briefly raise to high levels after the story intro of the Ascalon mission

- Fixed an issue where the Victory banner would on rare instances, appear on mission start

- Fixed an issue with the buy/sell price in the market place displaying incorrectly

- Fixed an issue where sound would play when the intro was skipped

[h3] We'd love to hear your insight on the demo! Every bit of feedback will help us make Stronghold games the best they can possibly be: https://forms.gle/p2JeRfSHFWAKMghW6 [/h3]