MechWarrior Online Legends
Apocryphal Product Although the subject of this article is an official BattleTech product, it does not meet the current criteria for Canon. Its content may or may not be canonical for the BattleTech universe, and for the purpose of the Sarna.net BattleTechWiki is considered apocryphal. |
MechWarrior is an upcoming BattleTech-themed simulation game currently under development by Piranha Games and Smith & Tinker for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. It was originally intended as a re-boot of the MechWarrior series of computer games and announced as "MechWarrior" (frequently referred to as "MechWarrior V" by fans, as the series had four previous installments).
As of yet, the game—announced as an online, free-to-play multi-player game—has not been launched.
Canonicity
When asked, BattleTech Line Developer Herbert A. Beas II stated in an official chat that the game would not be canonical per se[1].
Development
Jordan Weisman, co-creator of BattleTech and co-founder of FASA, is also the founder of the software firm Smith & Tinker. He negotiated the BattleTech/MechWarrior license back from Microsoft who had left the property idle for years. Russ Bullock from Piranha Games was a long time fan of the series and wanted to start a joint collaboration with Weisman. He contacted Weisman to develop a prototype project that would become the new iteration in the MechWarrior series of video games. Production of the new MechWarrior game first began on October 2008, where the two studios started discussing the project on pen and paper. After coming up with a presentation for a prototype scenario, both studios began ramping up a full-time team to work on the new game in March 2009.
A trailer with supposed in-game footage was released on 9 July, 2009, depicting a Warhammer fighting invaders on Deshler in 3015. This storyline/setting has since been abandoned for the game (see below).
Game storyline
Originally, the game was envisioned to be set on the Federated Suns planet Deshler around the year 3015; the player would play as Adrian Khol, fourth son of the ruling noble family and only survivor when House Kurita launches an invasion on the planet.
This concept was abandoned when the game's development was resumed near the end of 2011 after a year-long lull. The reworked concept now aims to produce a multi-player online game with a setting starting out just before the Clan Invasion, and then following the in-universe timeline at a pace of one day per real day.
References
- ↑ Chat transcript found here; see also transcript on this article's Talk page
Media
- IGN MechWarrior Q&A with Smith and Tinkers' Jordan Weisman and Russ Bullock of Piranha Games
- MechWarrior Trailer
- IGN Rewind Reveal Video
- The text in this article is based on this revision of the Wikipedia article "MechWarrior (reboot)" used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See the BattleTechWiki's copyright notice.