MechWarrior becomes MechWarrior Online from Piranha Games

Piranha Games has re-announced their MechWarrior reboot, now known as MechWarrior Online – coming in 2012. Though there may be some confusion in this news as the last thing we saw was a CGI trailer depicting one of the first battles that rages the war between factions in spectacular fashion – almost as if it was a single-player experience. This is the trailer we saw back in 2009 for the MechWarrior reveal:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bQkx0qKWYg&hd=1]

And so here we have the PC-exclusive, Free-2-Play multiplayer, team-based mech game: MechWarrior Online from Piranha Games. The phrase “Free-2-Play” or “F2P” or however you put it, is worrisome as you think graphics and/or content will be sub-par or out of balance with features or microtransactions holding back the best stuff. I don’t think we should worry about that as these guys have been working hard the past 2 years without so much as a peep as to what’s happening with the game. I think they are very concerned with the fan-base and and with PC exclusivity, they are focused all on one platform with one mission: not to disappoint.

Another worry is that this will not be faithful to the MechWarrior franchise, Piranha Games’ President Russ Bullock says otherwise to PC Gamer:

“I think it’s really the MechWarrior you know,” Bullock says. “It’s fully first-person. It’s not a new interpretation. We’re modernizing things a little bit, I think we’ll get to those questions, but certainly it’s MechWarrior.”

MechWarrior online features multiple upgrade paths, both for Mechs and pilots, but it should not be too complicated. As Bullock says, “If someone has played a combination of Mechwarrior, Call of Duty, and Diablo in their gaming life, they’re going to have seen everything that we’re offering for the most part.”

Register now to get your pilot name reserved at MWO Mercs. Also, read the full story at PCGamer.com.