Dev Blog 17/08/17 [EN]

[Callum]

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Gamescom is around the corner, and as you may have imagined, we will be there showcasing Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. We can’t tell you exactly what we will show just yet, but we can at least confirm that it will be something slightly different from the demo that we took to E3.

Before the hype goes through the roof: no, we won’t announce a release date for Bannerlord at Gamescom. Of course, we know that you just can’t wait to know when you will be able to play Bannerlord, and we certainly appreciate your excitement for the game – we know that impatience is just a reflection of the love people have for the Mount & Blade series. Over the preceding days, months and, well, years, you have repeatedly asked us why we can’t just tell you a date – even if it’s just an estimation, a window of release. Well, let’s address the elephant in the room…

We have not disclosed a release date so far because it does not exist. We don’t work like that. We are not a company who sets a timeline to release a product and then works to meet that deadline. We are TaleWorlds Entertainment: we create games because we love making them, and we want them to be the best games that we can possibly make. We think that our fans don’t deserve less than our best efforts, our total commitment. We don’t believe in releasing a game before it is ready just because we might miss the hype.

“But all these companies give a release date – why don’t you?” We respect every approach, of course; we are not saying that if a company announces a release date then they are not trying their best to develop a great game. It’s just that every company has a different philosophy and a different set of circumstances. For example, some companies have publishers, shareholders, investors and owners who press for a release date, even if it means cutting content from a game.

We are not in that situation, and creating the best game we possibly can is the most important thing to us. With that in mind, why limit ourselves with a release date if no one is pushing us to do so? And how would setting a date and then pushing it back further and further be better than not giving a date we are not sure about?

From a business perspective, there is no benefit at all for us to delay the release. The only thing that is important to us is developing a game that is truly unique, something that you will enjoy playing as much as we love making it. To sum this up: the release date will be announced only when the game is ready. Until then, we greatly appreciate any feedback we can receive from the community on the sections of the game that we are excited to show. Feedback improves the game!

Having said all that, we understand that some of you might fear that we are abandoning the game or that we are stuck in development hell. We can assure you that that is not the case: we have of course made our share of mistakes and false starts which have added to development time, but not more than what could be expected from a project of this scale.

Why so many years then? Well, the main reason is the size of the game. Bannerlord has a huge sandbox campaign which contains a number of different features that players can experience and enjoy. This includes, but is not limited to: fief and kingdom management, a deep trading system, a diplomacy and relationship system, and epic battles with hundreds of on-screen combatants that the player can command. Then there’s the multiplayer aspect of the game, featuring a matchmaking system for the first time in the Mount & Blade series, which lets players test their combat and tactical skills against players from all over the world. We are also working on ways to support our fantastic modding community by making the game as highly moddable as possible. Five years is actually not that long for the development of a game which encompasses as much as Bannerlord does. There are a lot of fundamental tech and architecture changes compared to Warband: it’s more complex than just adding some new textures and animations. It involves the technology, such as the new engine we built from scratch, but also the system, the mechanics – this is about balancing the invisible, the look and feel of the gameplay.

This is why we have not announced a release date, and why we won’t do it at Gamescom either. And these are the reasons why we think of it not as a sign of weakness, but of respect for our work and our community. We are working as hard as we can to develop the great game you are all waiting for, and our primary focus is the quality of the final product. We want Bannerlord to be the best game that TaleWorlds can create, and we won’t take any shortcuts to get there.

Finally, we would like to thank you for all the positive comments on last week’s blog – we look forward to seeing you next week when we will publish the Q&A with Armagan Yavuz, the founder of TaleWorlds Entertainment and game director of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

Mount & Blade

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[Elite Autiste]

release date when

[SpaceFox]

At this rate Star Citizen will release before this game.

[CAPITAL LETTER MAN]

No release date :(

[oyuncu]

Bu Q&A bu hafta olmayacak mıydı?..

[Teabo Baggins]

Bruh i can bet my life you will show something we already know people will ask the same questions and we will get the same answers.. i don't want to seem like hater but srly why are you bothering to show the game if you are showing the same old ♥♥♥♥ over and over again ?

[Dale]

A good way of doing it, Project Reality had the same mentality and I think overall it's a good one to have as a creative team, so many people want things "NOW!" rather than waiting for a decent product.

The truth is you are damned if you do and damned if you don't, but atleast the damned if you don't approach has the reservation that most of us respect the fact that you are taking your time.

[Jew]

I'm just glad they finally are giving us reasons WHY there isn't a release date, my only wish is that it is released late this year or early next year and when the game is finally release it will be GOTY POTENTIAL!!. Keep it up Taleworlds

[Princedarkforge]

i love you guys work and i may hate that we have no demo or release date as of yet. I for one understand and respect that. And yes no deadlines no early release = less bugs and less players disapointed = more players buying and sticking with the gme and buy expansion and future products. I thx you for making the best you can. is why you guys are my Favoret company when it comes to game making. pls pls keep up the great work and keep up the reputaction you have made for your self !

[Syliss]

I appreciate the post and understand why you are giving a release date. Would i liek one? Yes. But id also prefer that date to be the date of a full, complete, as close to bug free release as you can manage. So while the wait has been a long one i will continue to wait for this game. One of my main hopes for this game is an awsome character creator to go with the nice graphics ive seen. Cant wait to see what differences you have instore for male vs female chars in this installment.

[Jamash]

Thank you for the update, and thank you for taking your time.

Too many games rush to meet artificial deadlines and their finish product suffers from it, so it's heartening to see a developer giving a beloved game such as this the time it deserves to be the best it can be eventually.

'It will be done when it's done' isn't just good enough for me, it's the preferred release window for the highly anticipated sequel to my favourite game ever.

I'd been unwittingly waiting most of my life for Mount & Blade and still enjoy it to this day, so a few more months or years for the sequel to be finished properly is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

[Hraktuus]

I can understand this. Take the example of Sword of the Stars II. It's a completely different genre, but because they released it earlier than they should have, and screwed up the release at that, that game was a complete failure even though it was so promising and there were so many good things about it. It was actually completely playable at perfect at one point, but because Paradox abandoned support for it after about two years, it's back to being barely playable (though this is largely due to newer nVidia drivers. It might be fine on an AMD system.).

Knights of the Old Republic II is another great example, though it succeeded despite having so much cut from it. But imagine how much greater of a game Obsidian would have made had Lucasarts not forced them to make a Christmas release?

I absolutely would not want to see this happen to Bannerlord, and so I completely understand what they are doing here.

[Names Matter Not]

Let's be honest, you say that your "dev blocks" are a try to fix your communication issues regarding Bannerlord but you give zero information about anything game related.

[Spookman]

You guys announced bannerlord way too early.. But hey take your time. I still prefer a finished game even if that means waiting another 3 years or so. If I'm still alive that is.

[The Panda]

Okay, forget release date.. What about a RELEASE YEAR??

Why you can't say that "Game will be released until 2020" ? Come on, put one limit. It shouldn't has to be close.

[RiskyBiscuit]

At this rate they're going to run out of features to showcase at events before the game is out.

I also wonder if this slightly different demo is going to be as disappointing as the last. Fingers crossed, becasue for the last year or so all I've come to expect form TaleWorlds is precisely that.