MechWarrior reboot was derailed by Microsoft blocking PS3
The initial incarnation of Piranha Games' MechWarrior reboot, revealed yesterday to have become free-to-play PC exclusive MechWarrior Online, was stymied by "a Microsoft restriction" blocking a PS3 edition.
The initial incarnation of Piranha Games' MechWarrior reboot, which was revealed yesterday to have become the free-to-play PC exclusive MechWarrior Online, was stymied by "a Microsoft restriction" blocking a PlayStation 3 edition. This, according to Piranha, played a big part in publishers not wanting to pick the game up. Do remember there's a happy ending, though.
The revelation comes in a blog post from Piranha owner Bryan Ekman, retelling the history of the game's development. He explains that Piranha began shopping the reboot to publishers in earnest after releasing its jolly exciting proof of concept trailer, but were turned down by houses big and small.
A "restriction" from rights owner Microsoft which forbade a PlayStation 3 edition played a big part in this, he said, along with "the epic market collapse and major recession."
"In the end, it was mostly the lack of a PS3 option that did us in. The scope and budget required to develop a console reboot needed the support of a PS3 SKU and we just couldn't convince publishers to take a risk," Ekman explained. "By late fall 2009, our dreams of making a MechWarrior game, began slowly drifting away."
"Through the end of 2009 and into 2010 we rallied numerous times, reducing scope and budget, re-pitching the concept as a [Xbox] Live only title, etc. etc. In the end, nothing stuck."
After pitching in on the resurrected Duke Nukem Forever, working with the multiplayer and console editions, Piranha came back to MechWarrior in winter early this year.
The studio "decided to plunge in head first" and licensed the rights from license holder Smith & Tinker (the outfit founded by Jordan Weisman, co-creator of MechWarrior's tabletop source game, BattleTech).
Going back to the drawing point, Piranha began toying with free-to-play and switched to a later point in the established BattleTech timeline. It also finally found a publisher partner in "a local group" interested in the game, who rustled up funding to form Infinity Game Publishing.
And that's where baby MechWarrior games come from.
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Shacknews
replyAlice O'Connor posted a new article, MechWarrior reboot was derailed by Microsoft blocking PS3.
The initial incarnation of Piranha Games' MechWarrior reboot, revealed yesterday to have become free-to-play PC exclusive MechWarrior Online, was stymied by "a Microsoft restriction" blocking a PS3 edition.-
What exactly does Microsoft own the rights to?
'A "restriction" from rights owner Microsoft which forbade a PlayStation 3 edition...'
'The studio "decided to plunge in head first" and licensed the rights from license holder Smith & Tinker'
I'd be interested to know what they had rights to.-
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Broken clocks.
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Micro$oft
$on¥
Appl€
₩orld of ₩arcraft
Hew£ett Packard
A¢tivision
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You might sort of be in luck! http://www.cliffhanger-productions.com/content/list/details/id/65
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Smith & Tinker got the license from Microsoft with the stipulation that it never be used for PS3.
Same deal with Shadowrun. -
Believe it or not, but Microsoft used to publish PC games.
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Apparently it's a dog's breakfast in terms of legal issues because some early Mechwarrior designs were licensed from third parties or outright copied as well.
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Yeah I thought Harmony Gold, the company that owns the Robotech franchise, threatened legal action against this game after that trailer was released. Specifically the red 'mech from the trailer is one of the designs that was pretty much copied directly from the Macross franchise and Harmony Gold (kinda) holds the rights to Macross outside of Japan. Though the Macross franchise has its own massive legal mess that has been going on for years as well.
Its amazing how almost 30 years later the Macross/Robotech/Battletech/Mechwarrior legal situation is still ongoing.-
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I know, I know, I know, I know, I know...
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just the two of usssss
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I never really played MW4, but looking back I think one of the issues was you always benefited from taking the bigger and bigger mechs as the campaign progressed. You never really had to sit back and choose between taking something like an Atlas or a Mad Cat Vs. a Jenner or a firefly, because the mission called for more of a lighting-fast strike than a slow, methodical locking down of a large piece of the combat zone.
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