Banner Saga Factions Goes Live, 2 Console Versions To Launch Early, Banner Saga 2 Gets Release Date, Banner Saga 2 Misses 2015, Warbands Heads To Kickstarter, Shadow of Mordor Wins GDC 2015 Game of the Year, Killers and Thieves Revealed

The Banner Saga: Factions, a free-to-play turn-based strategy game that serves as an introduction to Stoic’s upcoming cartoony viking epic, The Banner Saga, has now exited beta and will officially launch to the public on 25th February.

In the meantime, it will be available a week early for those who donated to the former BioWare devs’ wildly successful Kickstarter. Backers also receive a special green jade stone on their combat emblem.

Now that the game is officially out of beta, all characters, stats, and rankings have been wiped, which is the perfect opportunity for newcomers to join in. “If you’ve been waiting for beta to end before trying the game, this is your week,” said Stoic community manager Sean “Ashen Temper” Dahlberg on the developer’s forum.

“With Factions’ launch, we’ve essentially worked out the ins and outs of combat, and we’re now focused on the travel and conversation outlined in the previous update, as well as the single-player campaign. Consider this the first major milestone on the road to success!”

The Banner Saga’s single-player campaign is set to debut this summer. It was originally scheduled for last November, but the developer exceeded its $100,000 goal by more than seven times, resulting in a significant increase in the game’s scope.

“When you scope the game for a certain amount of money and you make 7x that much, there’s no way around it, the game takes longer to make. We’re doing our best to minimise that, and we’re not taking 7x as long. Hopefully with the progress we show in regular updates, you’ll agree that we’re using the funding well and making the best decisions for the game,” the developer wrote on its forum.