{"id":923287,"date":"2026-07-29T02:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/obituary-taleworlds-entertainment-co-founder-ipek-yavuz-has-passed-away\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T02:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:12:08","slug":"obituary-taleworlds-entertainment-co-founder-ipek-yavuz-has-passed-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/obituary-taleworlds-entertainment-co-founder-ipek-yavuz-has-passed-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Obituary: TaleWorlds Entertainment co-founder \u0130pek Yavuz has passed away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Entertainment <\/p>\n<div data-component=\"captioned-content\" data-testid=\"featured-image\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-component=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-images.contentstack.com\/v3\/assets\/blt740a130ae3c5d529\/blt258a94a0958d6e73\/6a68cb5c51ed80975ae3b4fc\/New_Project(13).png?width=1280&#038;auto=webp&#038;quality=80&#038;format=jpg&#038;disable=upscale\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Entertainment A Game Developer graphic with a photograph of \u0130pek Yavuz\" title=\"Entertainment A Game Developer graphic with a photograph of \u0130pek Yavuz\"><\/p>\n<p><span>Photograph via TaleWorlds forums<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-module=\"content\" data-testid=\"article-base-body-content\">\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">\u0130pek Yavuz, co-founder of TaleWorlds and studio head of the Mount &#038; Blade series, has passed away at the age of 54.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">TaleWorlds <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><a rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/forums.taleworlds.com\/index.php?threads\/in-loving-memory-%C4%B0pek-yavuz.470827\/\">community manager Dejan<\/a><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"> announced the passing on Friday. &#8220;Today, we are deeply saddened to share the passing of our beloved co-founder, \u0130pek Yavuz, whose passion, dedication, and vision have been at the heart of TaleWorlds since the very beginning,&#8221; the statement reads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">&#8220;Together with her family and loved ones, we mourn her loss and remember her with love, respect, and gratitude.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">As per Moby Games, Yavuz is credited as CG artist on the original <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><span>Mount &#038; Blade<\/span><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\">, as well as studio head of <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><span>Mount &#038; Blade 2: Bannerlord<\/span><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\">. She co-founded the studio back in 2005 alongside her husband Arma\u011fan Yavuz.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">Since its conception, TaleWorlds has focused entirely on the Mount &#038; Blade series, releasing four mainline entries and a few DLCs over the years, the latter being <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><span>Mount &#038; Blade 2: Bannerlord &#8211; War Sails<\/span><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"> in November of 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-component=\"related-article\"><span data-testid=\"related-article-title\">Related:<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/resident-evil-requiem-has-sold-over-8m-units\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\">Resident Evil Requiem has sold over 8M units<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">TaleWorlds is an Ankara-based studio. Via <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><a rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.turkiyetoday.com\/culture\/ipek-yavuz-co-founder-of-taleworlds-and-mount-blade-creator-dies-at-54-3224640?s=1\">T\u00fcrkiye Today<\/a><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\">, back in 2016, the developer became the first T\u00fcrrkiye-based game company to exhibit at E3. The same year, a report by the Turkish Exporters Assembly recognized <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><span>Mount &#038; Blade<\/span><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"> as one of the country&#8217;s standout, high-value export products. Approximately 96 percent of its roughly seven million sales at that point went to international markets across 212 countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">&#8220;Found her work as a little web site offering a game demo which had you riding a horse round a tiny area, to get a taste of what they were working on,&#8221; <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><a rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/mountandblade\/comments\/1v5al5h\/comment\/ozjpxd5\/?utm_source=share&#038;utm_medium=web3x&#038;utm_name=web3xcss&#038;utm_term=1&#038;utm_content=share_button\">reads a comment<\/a><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"> from a Reddit user in the series&#8217; subreddit. &#8220;That was<\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><span> Mount &#038; Blade<\/span><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\">. Thank you for two decades of fun. My brother and I thought we had found something special, and it in fact turned into this amazing game series which we spent countless hours in. We were very lucky to be part of it.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">&#8220;This woman gave all of us the joy of Mount &#038; Blade, the game that is a genre in itself, a game which nothing else has come close to replacing,&#8221; reads <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><a rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/mountandblade\/comments\/1v5al5h\/comment\/ozha4e7\/?utm_source=share&#038;utm_medium=web3x&#038;utm_name=web3xcss&#038;utm_term=1&#038;utm_content=share_button\">another comment<\/a><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\">. &#8220;Thanks for everything. May you sit forever on the throne of Calradia.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2>Entertainment About the Author<\/h2>\n<div data-component=\"contributor-summary\">\n<p><a data-testid=\"contributor-summary-img-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/author\/diego-arguello\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-component=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-images.contentstack.com\/v3\/assets\/blt740a130ae3c5d529\/blt347a0e7bce060c71\/682356963510b060418447c4\/pic.jpg?width=400&#038;auto=webp&#038;quality=80&#038;disable=upscale\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Entertainment Diego Arg\u00fcello\" title=\"Entertainment Diego Arg\u00fcello\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"contributor-summary-subtitle\">Contributing Editor, News, GameDeveloper.com<\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">Diego Nicol\u00e1s Arg\u00fcello is a freelance journalist and critic from Argentina. Video games helped him to learn English, so now he covers them for places like The New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, and more. He also runs Into the Spine, a site dedicated to fostering and supporting new writers, and co-hosted Turnabout Breakdown, a podcast about the Ace Attorney series. He\u2019s most likely playing a rhythm game as you read this.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/obituary-taleworlds-co-founder-i-pek-yavuz-has-passed-away\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Diego Arg\u00fcello<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photograph via TaleWorlds forums \u0130pek Yavuz, co-founder of TaleWorlds and studio head of the Mount &amp; Blade series, has passed away at the age of 54. TaleWorlds community manager Dejan announced the passing on Friday. &#8220;Today, we are deeply saddened to share the passing of our beloved co-founder, \u0130pek Yavuz, whose passion, dedication, and vision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":923288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1798,33463,151345],"tags":[12807,151344],"class_list":["post-923287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-obituary","category-taleworlds","tag-obituary","tag-taleworlds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}