Well as far as I know the case with Harmony Gold is completely out of the picture. HG tried, once again, to sue Parana Games and Hare Brained Schemes a few years ago. But this time HG's claims were so thin that they got curb-stomped in court really hard. They were basically arguing that they owned the entire concept of 'mech' and not just the original art designs in question. That that just wouldn't fly in court. From what I understand HG themselves got spanked for failing to pay royalties payments from another 3rd company and they've basically lost the rights for everything connected to the original Macross series.

This is probably the best reporting I've seen on the subject. It lays it all out better that I can in a quick comment.
https://www.sarna.net/news/harmony-golds-case-against-harebrained-schemes-dismissed/

It's no secret that I was raised on a rich diet of Mechwarrior games, and reviews for this one have generally been quite good, so MW5 is a high priority interrupt on my game backlog when it comes down off the big pile of Sweeneybucks.

Piranha has taken a lot of crap for some of the things they did with Mechwarrior Online, but I thought that most of what they did was fine when viewed through the lens of what MWO needed to be in 2011. Also, as Noishkel touches on, PGI finally stood up to Harmony after two decades of low-rent IP trolling which in and of itself should score some major cool points with any fan of the franchise. We have unseen mechs again!

On the subject of MW4...maybe GOG could pick up distribution of the free Mektek version? It's my understanding that Mektek still has/had permission from MS, the team just fell apart due to internal issues and their version of Mercs went by the wayside.

Does it require any fancy accessories or can it be played well purely with keyboard and mouse?

O goody, goody... so Windows 7 owners need not apply?

Windows 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft.

they've basically lost the rights for everything connected to the original Macross series.

they've basically lost the rights for everything connected to the original Macross series.

they've basically lost the rights for everything connected to the original Macross series.

they've basically lost the rights for everything connected to the original Macross series.

they've basically lost the rights for everything connected to the original Macross series.

they've basically lost the rights for everything connected to the original Macross series.


AWWWWWW YEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH THIS IS JUST GRADE A GOOD NEWS!!!!!! HARMONY GOLD IS DEAD! HARMONY GOLD IS DEAD! HARMONY GOLD IS DEAD AND I AM DANCING ON THEIR GRAVE!

Who owns the rights of the Mechwarrior franchise? Actvision or Microsoft? Are Mechwarrior, Batletech and Mechcommander related in any way? because if I am ot mistaken both companies were involved in any way, even Infocom, later owned by Activision.

Many developers still launch games mentioning Windows 7. CD Project Red to name one. Many people will keep playing with machines that run Windows 7, so it is up to the publishers if they want to lose that market or not. It will be the cost of making sure that the game runs in W7 versus the potential revenue for doing so.

i am so glad this is finally not epic exclusivity anymore, but i didnt even hope to see it drm free at all... it's a very nice surprise

No, im pretty sure mektek lost the rights, which is why the free release is no longer available and mektek asked for people to stop sharing it. Im not sure what the issue was, but they also had to stop creating their game AT1BT and moved to Heavy Gear
Mechwarrior and Mech Commander are based in the BT universe. Activision got the rights to create a BT game and created MW2. They only had the rights to make one game and wanted to create more after the success of MW2, so they made the expansion Ghost Bears Legacy and the standalone MW2 Mercs. After that they were never licensed to make anoter BT game and MS took over the rights for the games. Hence MW2 is in licensing hell.

MS made MW 3 through MW4 and its Mercs and expansions. I think MS still owns the rights, but licenses others such as Pirhanna and HBS to make additional games. I dont think MS owns the general BT IP, just for making video games. They kept the Mechwarrior title for brand recognition after MW2, but its all BT, which began as a tabletop
You can play with M&KB, which is how Ive enjoyed MW games since MW2

Thanks for the info!

I wasn't a huge Mechwarrior fan, but I was interested enough starting in the mid-90s to purchase the PC games based on the franchise on CD-ROM. First I bought Mechwarrior 2 DOS (which I at first couldn't run because I learned too late that it required at least a 486 DX-2 66 MHz processor, and mine was a 486 DX-2 50 MHz; I did eventually play it on my father's Pentium 133 MHz machine), then Mechwarrior 2: Pentium Edition (it ran on Windows 95), then Mechwarrior 2: Titanium Edition (it was compatible with 3D accelerators). I also purchased the Ghost Bears Legacy expansion, though I don't remember any of its gameplay, and Mercenaries, which had a really cool cinematic intro.

I never completed any of the MW2 campaigns, but I did spend about a dozen hours on each one. I loved each clan's CGI animated intros, they really distinguished each faction, and were state of the art at the time. The mission synopsis screens, however, were a disappointment.

I played it solely with Mouse and Keyboard. Its the same/extremlly similar control scheme as MW3 and MW4. However, changing hotkeys gets a huge recommendation from me. I did the same with the other MW games (basically spending hours finetuning and changing controls before finally playing in a less casual fashion).

I always loved the cintematics and the universe behind it such as the clans. I thknk MW2 was done on a low budget and rushed out. The main thing for me was the actual combat and the missions. Even just doing the instant action was fun for hours upon hours. Then mix in customizing your mechs and weapon loads. Like using a high heat build on an ice planet, or using a little to no heat build on a hot planet. Being able to decide what your lance is comprised of to put strategy into it.

For what they had as far as time and resources it was an achievement despite areas like the mission briefing lacking. I loved every MW game and mercs adding your ability to choose where you go and what missions to take, managing your own mercenary unit and all, its just amazing.

Ive waited for MW5 for 17 years... i simply cant wait for it to finally release here. And i did hold out, I settled for checking out other people's videos to see what its like and im sure my wife will hate MW and me for a few months after it releases here

*looks at the "coming soon" line; looks at the current GPU market*... Take your time guys :P