Mount & Blade is a medieval, single-player nonlinear action role-playing video game for Windows, developed by the Turkish company TaleWorlds, and published by Paradox Interactive. Its retail version was released on September 16, 2008, in North America, and three days later in Europe. The game originated as an independent project of Armağan Yavuz, founder of TaleWorlds, and his wife, İpek Yavuz. Prior to its retail release, beta versions of the game were published on the developer's website beginning in 2004. The game was made available on Steam on November 3, 2008.