Hit Kickstarter funded RPG The Banner Saga arrives on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 early next year, developer Stoic has proudly announced. The port has been planned for some time too, according to Stoic’s founder and director John Watson.
We have been working on porting Banner Saga to consoles for some time. Porting the game certainly presented technical challenges that we needed to overcome, and gave us an opportunity to redesign the user experience for console controllers. We have managed to merge the story and gameplay from Banner Saga with a refined controller interface to make it a very enjoyable console gaming experience.
That last sentence will come as good news to any of you wary of the dreaded word ‘port,’ which – more often than not – results in a re-release on a different platform being handled by a third party studio that encounters numerous problems, i.e. Batman: Arkham Knight.
There shouldn’t be any of that with The Banner Saga’s console début though, as both the Xbox One and PS4 versions will feature a redesigned interface other changes. Versus Evil manager Steve Escalante also commented on the difficulty of porting a full title where small studios like Stoic are concerned.
Launching the Banner Saga on next gen consoles is a huge step forward for Stoic and the brand. With this latest achievement, the Stoic team is able to work on more platforms and reach more customers with its games and technology. This is not a small thing to consider for such a small team. Looking ahead at what this could mean for Banner Saga 2 gets really exciting.
If you’ve not had the chance to play The Banner Saga yet due to its PC exclusivity, we strongly recommend you pick it up when it launches for consoles on January 16 – it’s a fantastic old school RPG created by fans for fans of the genre.
Published: Dec 16, 2015 12:30 pm