Your BattleTech News Roundup For November 2020
There’s a sense of anticipation this November. We’re all looking forward to good things that are coming, whether they be Cyberpunk 2077, our Clan Invasion packages, covid vaccines, or even winter. Personally, I hate winter, but I acknowledge the fact that some people might like it.
I’m a terrible Canadian, in case you hadn’t noticed.
Anyway, we got a lot of big news this month so there’s no sense dilly-dallying. Let’s get to it!
MechWarrior 5 & MechWarrior Online Developer Piranha Games Purchased By Swedish Games Publisher EG7
Watch this video on YouTube.
Big news for MechWarrior 5 and MechWarrior Online fans. Piranha Games, the Vancouver-based developer that made both previously mentioned games, has been bought out by Swedish publisher EG7 for a purchase price of $31.4 million CAD.
There’s a couple of very interesting figures produced in the press release from EG7. PGI’s net sales for the one-year period prior to September 30, 2020, totaled $22.7 million, with MechWarrior 5 selling “hundreds of thousands of copies on Epic Games Store alone.” Over MechWarrior Online‘s lifetime, the game has generated $75 million CAD in net revenue, which sounds like it was quite profitable.
So who’s EG7? A cursory glance around the interwebs reveals them to be a relatively new Swedish games publisher with a history of working with some pretty big names in the games industry. They have their hand in a little bit of everything, but they mostly seem to handle marketing and publishing with a few developers under their umbrella. They’ve done marketing for Call of Duty, Destiny, Fortnite, and Angry Birds, so they’ve certainly handled IP way bigger than MechWarrior.
For PGI, EG7 offers financial stability and resources to fund MechWarrior 5‘s future development and also get them started on their next big thing. In EG7’s third-quarter financial presentation, PGI President Russ Bullock revealed that his company will work on a “new live-service IP” in the next five years while simultaneously supporting MechWarrior 5.
In return, EG7 gets a Candian developer with 65 employees as well as access to the MechWarrior license. Since PGI is going to be working on a new IP, this means EG7 might hand the next MechWarrior game over to a different developer to see what they come up with. Or they might sit on the IP and do nothing. EG7 gave no indication in their presentation of what they plan to do either way.
The press release states that PGI will continue to operate as an independent studio with the financial backing of EG7. That’s great news for PGI as it means they get to continue on as normal while still collecting salaries as they make their new live-service IP--whatever the heck that is.
All we know for sure at this point is that whatever game PGI makes, it won’t be MechWarrior. I’ve reached out to EG7 to see if they’ve got any plans for the license.
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries Coming To Xbox Series X/S In Spring 2021, Steam Release Delayed
Hot off the heels of that news, the MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries and its attendant DLC, Heroes of the Inner Sphere, won’t release December 10th on Steam as previously planned. PGI pretty much came right out and said that releasing on the same day as Cyberpunk 2077 was “less than optimal,” so a delay seems prudent.
The new release window for Steam is Spring of 2021. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there’s going to be more than just a Steam release. MechWarrior 5 is now also going to be released on GOG.com and, surprisingly, the brand-new Xbox Series X/S consoles.
I’m a PC gamer, so I don’t have one of Microsoft’s newfangled consoles, but it sure looks like it could run a game like MechWarrior 5 just fine. PGI notes this’ll be the first MechWarrior game on a home console since MechAssault 2, which is kinda neat. The extra time will also give the developers time to polish MechWarrior 5 until it’s gleaming, “including [improvements to] AI, UI, art, customization, and content.”
And if you don’t have an Xbox Series X/S, there’s going to be an Xbox One version too.
But What About MechWarrior Online?
Watch this video on YouTube.
Last month, we learned the MechWarrior Online was in for a bit of a revival. PGI had resecured the rights to the MechWarrior license from Microsoft and was thinking of ways to reinvigorate their oldest MechWarrior game. To that end, they hired Bombadil to be the new community manager, who then went to work talking to the community to generate some ideas on what they could do to make MechWarrior Online a better game.
Bombadil posted a list of those ideas on the MechWarrior Online website, which range from simple server-side changes that might improve the new player experience to sweeping overhauls of the MechWarrior Online matchmaker. As discussed last month, the idea here is to improve MechWarrior Online with as little effort as possible, so some of the more labor-intensive ideas seem less likely to occur than others.
On the latest Beardcast with No Guts To Galaxy, Bombadil basically said that he’s going to take this list to the PGI heads to further discuss, but not to expect any additional news on this topic until next year. Considering MechWarrior 5 and its expansion, Heroes of the Inner Sphere, arrive on both Steam and Xbox Series X/S next spring, PGI is probably going to have most of their programmers working on MechWarrior 5 for the next little while and won’t have a lot to spare for MechWarrior Online.
Catalyst Has A New Assistant Line Developer
Catalyst has a new assistant line developer. Aaron Cahall got the job as per an October 28th announcement that got in just after I’d already posted the October supplemental news dump, so we’re going to cover it here.
According to Catalyst’s press release, Cahall was previously the BattleTech line editor for the past two years, helping to make new products, help new writers, and keeping developers on tight deadlines.
“I’m pleased to be able to continue supporting Ray and the entire BattleTech team during this exciting time for the game,” Cahall said. “I’ve been a BattleTech fan for a long time, but it’s the people involved in making it who have come to mean even more to me. I’m looking forward to moving into the new ilClan era alongside them.”
Judging by the job description, this sounds to me like mostly a title change. Cahall will still do mostly the same stuff he’s done before, but maybe we’ll see his name at the bottom of those new BattleTech product emails instead of current line developer Ray Astaria.
Also, CamoSpec‘s has a new leader in Matt Frederiksen. He organized the annual CamoSpecs GenCon diorama (back when GenCon was still a thing), and now he’ll be recruiting new artists to join the CamoSpecs team.
Tukayyid Returns In New Fiction And Sourcebook
It was perhaps the greatest battle in BattleTech history. When seven invading Clans arrived on Tukayyid, they were stopped dead in their tracks by ComStar‘s Com Guards. Cutting edge Clan tech wasn’t enough to overcome good old fashioned Star League designs and Inner Sphere guile. And now Catalyst is celebrating Tukayyid with new fiction, a sourcebook, and all-new miniatures.
First off, we’ve got five new novellas coming that tell the story of Tukayyid from multiple sides. A few of them are already out, including Blake’s Own by Jason Schmetzer and Two Roads Diverged from Michael J. Ciaravella. Both tell the story of the Com Guards’ clash with Clan Smoke Jaguar, and we all know how that turned out.
Nine stories will be released in the lead-up to The Battle of Tukayyid Sourcebook which arrives on November 27th. Catalyst is giving us a 200-page hardcover volume that covers each of the seven campaigns. Expect a “full overview of the battle, including a map of the regions; the specific combatants involved, along with insignias; and details to allow players to experience each campaign on their tabletop.”
And just for a little extra, the Battle Of Tukayyid Supplemental PDF provides record sheets, counters, and a worksheet for the Battle Support: Combined Arms rules.
There’s not a lot of info on the miniatures, but I expect them to be the same ComStar minis that were included in the second wave of the Clan Invasion. I’ll be sure to report more as soon as I find out.
Oh, and one more Catalyst thing: the Clan Recognition Guide is up to Volume 8 now. Go get it on the Catalyst store.
People Are Getting Old MechWarrior Games To Work On Some Pretty Weird Stuff
I noticed a bit of a trend on the MechWarrior subreddits this November. People are getting very old MechWarrior games to work on some pretty esoteric devices in much the same way people have been getting Doom to work on technology that has no business playing Doom (such as a pregnancy test).
First up, Reddit user Nakele got MechWarrior 3 working on a Samsung Note9. For something without a dedicated graphics processor to run any game is a technical achievement, so kudos to Nakele for getting MechWarrior 3 to work at all. That said, there’s some noticeable slowdown in actual combat, and the overall frame rate isn’t exactly what I’d call “smooth.”
But it works! And that’s what’s important.
Topping that is user benchallenger10 with MechWarrior 2 running on a Samsung Z Fold2 with additional controller support. This makes the whole setup look like a Nintendo Switch, only it’s playing some classic MechWarrior. Sadly, we don’t get to see the game in action, but benchallenger10 reports that they’re getting 60fps at 1024x868 resolution. They also managed to get MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries working too, but the slightly more “advanced” textures made the frame rate drop below 60fps at times.
Both of these are fantastic, and I encourage other techy MechWarriors to get old MechWarrior games working on even more humble devices. If Doom can play on a pregnancy test, maybe we can get MechWarrior 2 to play on a programmable microwave or something.
You’ll Love This 3D-Printed Magnetic Catapult
Here we have a 3D-printed Catapult model that uses magnets to swap between the arm-mounted PPCs of the CPLT-K2 and the LRM-15s of the CPLT-C1. There’s also a magnet that lets the torso twist, too. It’s great, and I want one. We should all message Reddit user Philbobagginzzz for the details.
The Pikachu Urbie Gets An Upgrade
You remember my article discussing the possibility that BattleTech might have what I described as a “Pokemon problem,” right? Well, forget about that argument and just click on the link to see the cover image. I didn’t know who made that adorable Pokemon-themed tableau at the time of writing, but now I do. And they’ve come back with an even better version of the PikachUrbie thanks to the new model redesigns sent out with the Clan Invasion Kickstarter.
Reddit user feor1300, you are hereby officially recognized for your creative genius. Please let me know how much Nintendo intends to sue you for copyright infringement and I’ll start the Go Fund Me page to pay for your legal defense. I won’t actually contribute, mind you, but I’ll at least start the page.
Wolves Announced Wave 2 Expansion Coming In Spring Of 2021
Watch this video on YouTube.
Wolves, the fan-made MechAssault remake that has the tacit approval of Microsoft (provided they don’t actually sell anything) is getting the Mad Cat Mk II. That’s neat, right?
Wave 2 will also include the Raven, Raptor, and Hellbringer. Although, given the screenshots posted last month, I’m pretty sure that’s actually the Raptor II, which was also introduced in MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf.
There’s also some pretty sweet animation improvements coming in Wave 2. You can’t discount animation when it comes to ‘Mech games--there’s a fine line between the lumbering gait of a 75-ton death machine and the wobbling stumbles of a chicken-legged robot.
I’m Actually Not Getting My Clan Invasion Wave 1 Kickstarter Package Because I’m A Fool
So I still haven’t gotten my Wave 1 package even though pretty much every Canadian has received theirs, and now I know why. Back when I was choosing my shipping options, I selected “ship all at once” rather than “ship as products become available.” So now I gotta wait for Wave 2 to ship before I get everything that I ordered.
This was all happening just as the first wave of the COVID pandemic was really hitting home, so I’m sure I was thinking it’d be a noble sacrifice to let mail services deliver more important packages than little robot figurines, but now I haven’t seen my friends in months and I could really use the pick-me-up that only ‘Mechs can provide.
Ah well. Just a few weeks until Heroes of the Inner Sphere drops and then I’ll have plenty of distractions. Oh, wait.
That’s it for November! Join us next time as we contend with a pandemic and winter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay at home.
And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy.
