The long-awaited next entry in the Mount & Blade series will finally be in the hands of its fans next year, as the developer TaleWorlds Entertainment today announced at gamescom that Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord will be available through Steam"s Early Access program in March 2020.
The Calradia-set sandbox RPG was announced back in 2012 as a prequel to Mount & Blade: Warband, expanding on many of the features seen in the massively popular standalone expansion. The sequel is set to add deeper combat - the source of many gameplay previews -, diplomacy, siege, economy, and even modding elements. Of course, it will look much better too.
Although the Early Access launch is still some time away, many fans will be happy to finally have a firm window to look forward to after over seven years of waiting. For those who are attending gamescom this week, TaleWorlds also has a new demo for them to try out showing off some of the open-ended campaign"s mid-game.
The Steam page for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord can be found here, although it hasn"t been updated with any Early Access information, like pricing or what will be included, as of publishing this article.