Mount & Blade 2 is coming to Early Access next month – Here’s what you need to run it

Taleworlds Entertainment has confirmed that Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord will arrive on Early Access on March 31st 2019, with retail availability on Steam, the Epic Games Store and through Taleworld’s own website. The game is due to cost $49.99 in the US and £39.99 in the UK. 

At this time, it is unknown how long Mount and Blade 2 will be available on Early Access, or what content the game will release with in March. Expect the same Medieval sandbox as the original, albeit with new features, updated graphics and new singleplayer content. 

The game takes place 200 years before the original Mount and Blade, when the game’s Calradian Empire is on the verge of collapse, and several factions are fighting for control of what remains. The game is also due to ship with a multiplayer mode, which will focus on the game’s battle system. 

At this time, Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord’s PC system requirements are due to change over time, which is what should be expected from early access titles. That said, Mount and Blade 2 is designed with a large degree of scalability in mind, supporting systems which range from integrated graphics to high-end gaming components. 

In the low-end, Bannerlord 2 will run on newer quad-core or better processors, such as AMD’s Ryzen 3 1200 and Intel’s i3-8100 and on graphics processors as lowly as Intel’s UHD 630 series. That said, the game also lists AMD’s HD 7850 and Nvidia’s  GTX 660 under its minimum GPU requirements, which means that this game is intended to be played with discrete graphics components.  

On the high-end, TaleWorlds recommends that PC gamers use systems with six or more strong CPU cores, such as Intel’s i5-9600K or AMD’s Ryzen 5 3600X. Graphics cards like AMD’s Radeon RX 580 and Nvidia’s GTX 1060 3GB are also recommended. Storage-wise, the game will require around 60GB of free storage, though this is likely to change as Mount and Blade II is developed further.