Previously expected on July 26, Stoic and Versus Evil announced today that The Banner Saga 2 will now release on July 1 for Xbox One and July 5 for PlayStation 4.
Saying the release date change is “thanks to a collaborative effort between the developers and first party partners Sony and Microsoft,” Stoic added that The Banner Saga 2 will be a Games With Gold title on Xbox One for July. On PS4, PlayStation Plus members will receive 10% off The Banner Saga 2 at launch, as well as 30% off The Banner Saga 1 and 2 complete pack.
In terms of platform-exclusive content, the PS4 will get an exclusive passive ability boost, the Playful Hilt of Arnr, a hilt of a sword that was said to provide comfort in extended battles. On Xbox One, you can expect the Tome of X, a book of catalogued pastimes, competition, puzzles. Both items are automatically unlocked and can be equipped once a character reaches the required level of 10.
Stoic Technical Director John Watson said:
We are incredibly happy to be able to release Banner Saga 2 on console so that fans of the series can finally jump into the second installment of this epic saga. We pulled out all the stops to make this happen in timely manner and shortly after the PC version was released.
Answering some questions about The Banner Saga 2, Stoic said you can still enjoy the sequel without playing the original:
There’s no downside if you’re jumping into this from scratch. To help those of you that didn’t play Banner Saga 1, we’ve included a recap video that gives you a quick low down of events that happened before Banner Saga 2 and we’ve also given you two default characters to choose from in the starting options if you haven’t imported your save game from Banner Saga 1.
Since your save data from The Banner Saga doesn’t automatically import into The Banner Saga 2, you have the option of importing a saved game or choosing one of the default starting options.
If you want to play The Banner Saga, it will be 25% off when The Banner Saga 2 launches.
As for the PlayStation Vita version of the first game, development “is still underway and largely being handled by our friends at Sony.”
Finally, development for The Banner Saga 3 hasn’t started yet, but Stoic is aiming to release all versions of the trilogy’s finale at the same time.
[Source: PS Blog]
