We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

A closed beta for Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord multiplayer is currently underway

The studio says it has plans to transition to an open beta for the game's multiplayer in the future

Best Medieval games - soldiers climbing a wall in Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord.

Excited to head into the land of Calradia and fight for glory on its civil-war torn battlefields? The sieges and victories of upcoming medieval RPG Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord are drawing ever nearer – its developer TaleWorlds Entertainment has just announced that the game has entered a multiplayer beta stage, with plans for an open beta later on.

Posting in a dev’s blog on Steam the studio says that, following the announcement earlier this year that it would host a multiplayer beta for the game, “this week, we started inviting members of our community to participate in a closed beta”. There is currently a small pool of testers, giving the studio a chance to engage with them directly and get the feedback it needs to keep improving Bannerlord’s multiplayer mode.

The devs assert that the game is “far from feature and content complete”, with this beta stage designed to test it mechanics, systems, and of course stability, before it gets pushed out to a bigger audience. Once this is wrapped up, the studio has plans to push an open beta out, to a larger number of players. Hopefully this means that by the time the game rolls out, those siege battles we’ve heard about will be honed and spectacular.

Emphasising the “value of including our community at this stage of development”, the studio says that the current closed beta “is the most productive route to take, as it allows us to draw from their collective knowledge, understanding, and experience of our previous games”.

Arm yourself: Check out all the latest details on Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

There’s still no sign of a release date yet, but TaleWorlds says it’ll let players keen to apply for its open beta know when it comes around, so keep an eye out for news on this. In the meantime, you can rest safe in the knowledge that, after five years in development, the battle drums are sounding ever closer.