Thanks for that detail! :)

By released I assumed the OP meant it got actually released; not that ppl get suckered into paying for beta testing :P

So chances are still there it gets released here on release day (actual release day, not payed beta).

I'm guessing it has to do with server hosting and the EA market.

From an interview TaleWorlds said:

We expect to enable our community to host private servers closer to the full release of the game.

https://www.worthplaying.com/article/2020/3/27/news/118738/

I expect when the game actually releases it will be here.

While you wait:
Perisno just released 1.0
https://www.moddb.com/mods/perisno

Not to mention BannerPage recently released
https://www.moddb.com/mods/bannerpage

And of course you have Prophesy of Pendor, The Last Days Of The Third Age, Bones of Ragnvald, and of course Warsword to keep us through the long years of indev.

So i bought it on steam, and it does have drm there. There is no way to launch the game without steam running, if you do you get the "cannot find steam api" error and a white screen. I just refunded.

btw, there are certainly enough votes for GOG to be interested but it doesn't hurt to vote, maybe you could add this to your post (with bold text to make it stand out):

Wishlist: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/mount_blade_ii_bannerlord

It's In dev. and will be for about a year; so I don't understand why people are complaining of bugs.

I'd love the game to come to gog however I will wait a bit until it becomes much more stable or at least that direction is taken then the one that is currently on offer. Not too fond of the new setting, I like the old setting and would rather an updated world with updated NPCs ect. then some retro history.

Knowing that the game is still in early access, I think it'd be best for the game to not be released on GOG yet. Since we can expect the game to receive tons of updates intended to fix bugs as well as to polish its overall performance, I think having Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord put on GOG around the same time as it was released on Steam might actually put quite a burden on TaleWorlds as they will be required or expected to pass on the same updates to the GOG version of Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord while still taking into account that without DRM, it might take a longer time for them to update the game on GOG (?). However, this is just me. I prefer to download game patches directly from GOG's website and not through GOG Galaxy. For those who uses GOG Galaxy, then I guess you can ignore this first paragraph lol.

I think it would result in a problem where before updates A and B had even been uploaded to GOG, a new update C was already issued. Therefore, a gulf (not literally) would then separate the enjoyment levels that the GOG's player base and the Steam's player base were to experience.

So, perhaps after Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord has finally elevated from its current early access stage, then maybe that will be the best time for TaleWorlds to release a GOG version of the game. We don't want to simply drool in front of our computer screens watching the gameplays of other players who purchased the game on Steam, do we?

10 years to get to a buggy minor update to warband. I wouldn’t expect to see this anytime this century.

Mount and Blade Warband had a buggy update on GOG?

Nope, from what I am reading (will hopeful actual get to see myself over the next few days) is that Bannerlord is really just warband, with some updated graphics. Can’t confirm that just now though.

As someone who played warband for 1,000's of hours, and has watched hours of live streaming of Bannerlord, I disagree. I think TaleWorlds knows why people like Warband and have improved on the systems it had in almost every way. But yeah, it's pretty buggy and unbalanced, but they said it would be like that. Hopefully they will continue thier reputation for listening to community feedback and fix the things people don't like, including the bugs.

This is the post I made on the TW forum about the game:

https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/my-bannerlord-feedback-suggestions-sp.401245/

I have been playing it for a few hours. The main UI is pretty awful, took me ages to work out how to equip my avatar, and how to assign skills. Ido like the new character creator where you can see what it will affect. I have had some bugs, bodies dissapearing, items in inventory disappearing.
Other than that it’s ok, I really can’t see any advancement from warband other than a bit of a graphic update. In fact the character animations look to be ported directly over and still look awkward. Not done siege or that yet so can’t talk on that. You can get large battles without hacks. Everything else seems identical. Arena is a bit harder. Inns have a few more people. Couple of minor QOL improvements. Skills are an odd one, might be ok, not got far enough. You have to buy learning, then use it to progress. Fighting is identical. In fact control is all identical.
Overall, I just see it as a graphically improved warband. Not bad, just nothing new.

Just scanned your post, and what I know I tend to agree with most of it.

Just want to add, I think one of the main reasons why people still migrate to Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord is because of the modding community (although there are indeed exceptions such as Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2005) and the first Dawn of War). With Bannerlord, most probably the major modders from Mount and Blade Warband will move to Bannerlord and begin to create mods for the Bannerlord's player base. Even if what you said is indeed true and that Bannerlord is only a few minor steps forward from Warband, the idea of being left behind with mods that are no longer updated by their owners is quite a sad experience and huge motivation for people to leave Warband and start playing Bannerlord.

Yes, no doubt. Just a look on moddb shows a lot of big mods already being planned and sketched out. Which is a good thing, but I do feel we will need warband for quite some time yet before there is a mass move. There are a lot of huge TCs, even from original M&B which will just never get updated now. Prophesy of pendor was talking about going independant.
I suppose one question would be, will the more official content be migrated, Viking conquest for instance.
Anyways, as the two are so similar, I don’t see there being too much issues migrating over.

Edit, thinking more about this. Perhaps it should be thought of more as a platform. In this way taleworlds could provide upgrade paths from previous versions. I haven’t as yet looked at the files, but things like text files should be directly portable, just a structure change maybe? It’s only the hints like models and textures which might be an issue, perhaps AI texture upscaling. Looks like a lot of the animations are direct ports. Maybe one me of the moders will push out some documentation out.

That would actually be a great idea. Perhaps, that will be in the form of a DLC which everyone is more or less inclined to buy. I mean, with your idea, the modding community wouldn't have to undergo a slow separation towards Bannerlord. Heck, knowing that (forgot the name of the mod) there was one mod for Warband that was already experimenting with different siege engines, this texture upscaling you mentioned will make Warband almost like Bannerlord. However, even if your suggestion were to be added in the future, I think it would take about several years from the end of Bannerlord's early access, as releasing such a huge texture overhaul DLC might just rob the sales from Bannerlord's. But one way or another, that texture upscaling idea will definitely earn TaleWorlds with more sales if done correctly.

If TaleWorlds were to still trying to weigh down the option behind such DLC, then maybe they could see the DLC as merely a graphical improvement to the current graphics of Warband, where the rest of the new features in Bannerband the modders can try to find ways to implement those features in Warband themselves, know how talented Mount and Blade modders already are.

And maybe if the modders were to be the first one to make the move, then it would be like Star Wars Battlefront III Legacy where the Star Wars Battlefront 2's (2005) graphics are basically altered to the ones used in the canceled Star Wars Battlefront 3. Still, if TaleWorlds could take the initiative, that would be a lot better.

Link: https://www.moddb.com/mods/star-wars-battlefront-iii-legacy

P.S.: I'm not sure why, but your idea gives me hope lol. Someone needs to run a petition, quick!