Mount & Blade II has been released for early access. It is already in the top of the most successful releases in the history of Steam

After eight years of development, the Turkish game Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord was released for early access. The project was expected. On the first day, the number of users in the game at the same time reached 161 thousand. And the figure is growing.

Mount & Blade II: BannerlordWhat kind of project?

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is a continuation of the popular Mount & Blade series of games, whose total sales by 2015 amounted to 6 million copies (according to SteamSpy, now, excluding the second part, this figure may be 9 million).

The novelty is distributed as a premium product. At the start, its price in Russia is 1529 rubles, in the USA — $ 45. Most likely, after the release, the game will be distributed at full price.

What happened?

Despite the high price for early access, the game is rapidly gaining online. At the time of writing, the number of users who are in the game at the same time exceeded 161 thousand and continued to grow rapidly.

Top 10 games on the highest online for March 30 (data as of 19.00)
That’s a lot.

In the entire history of Steam, only 34 titles online had more. Released in February, the game Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, which many called a phenomenon, reached the release mark of only 127 thousand online.

Given the high ratings of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, the developers’ bet on replayability, as well as good retention from previous games in the series, it can be assumed that the game will show consistently high performance after the decline in peak interest associated with the release.

Mount & Blade — what is it all about?

The games of the series are considered to be role-playing action games with an open world. They don’t have a plot as such. The player decides on his own what to do: to be a mercenary, a representative of one of the conflicting parties or to rebuild his own state.

The games are based on two main modes. At the macro level, the player travels around the map, decides what to do in the cities, deals with the economy. At the micro level, there are fights from the third person. The closest analogue of the series is Sid Meier’s Pirates!, where there is no sea, and instead of battles on schooners, there is a combat system in the spirit of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord
Before the second part came out:

• The original Mount & Blade in 2008;
• independent addition of Mount & Blade: Warband in 2010;
• independent addition Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword in 2011.

All games were developed by Ankara-based TaleWorlds Entertainment studio.

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• Is there any news?