The Banner Saga - Factions Announced

I was under the impression Stoic Studio had decided to bypass the combat-only free-to-play Banner Saga Factions but apparently it will be released in November. From Destructoid:

While Banner Saga Chapter 1 (a full game, not an episode) will arrive early 2013, Stoic is taking the combat and assets from it and making a free-to-play multiplayer game called Banner Saga Factions, which will arrive on PC and Mac in early November. iPad and Ouya releases will follow.
"Basically we are developing the single-player game, and we realized we are doing all this work on the combat and it's really fun to play!" Art Director Arnie Jorgensen said. "Why not just release the combat as we develop the full game?"

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More information.

Is there actual footage of the combat or gameplay on the internet? I only found the announcement trailer.

Some people are really freaking out about multiplayer being free-to-play. The matching system does sound like it prevents it from being a pay-to-win system though because the matching system pits you against other players who have spent an equal amount of "renown" on upgrading their characters. This renown is earned either by killing enemies or you can buy it. This means that if you're someone just starting out you will not be matched up against someone who has payed fully upgraded everything. It also means that someone who buys all their renown can easily find themselves fighting someone who has earned it all and therefore is likely to be quite a bit more experienced.

Really, as far as F2P goes, this sounds like a pretty good idea for ensuring that multiplayer isn't empty of people and that someone paying for points doesn't have much of an edge over someone who didn't - because they'll be facing people with roughly equal points.