Posted February 01, 2022
Grargar: Does Microsoft even care about Mechwarrior? It's been 20 years ever since Mechwarrior 4 was released and they haven't done anything with the series since then. Not even a rerelease of Mechwarrior 4 to coincide with Battletech (2018)/Mechwarrior 5. Don't get too optimistic with this acquisition.
They might care more so now, since they are buying Activision out. Whatever rights Activision has, that's now Microsoft's. But, that still might not be the be-all, end-all here.
Now it's down to whatever nonsense is still left for older titles - i.e. anyone holding licenses, distribution rights owners, engine owners, and God knows what other mess any other parties own and need to be involved to get stuff down.
SpikedWall's post surely gives us a lot of insight on this mess - https://www.gog.com/forum/general/who_owns_the_earlier_mechwarrior_games_and_what_are_the_chances_they_come_to_gog_and_steam/post16
If Microsoft can lock-down all of the rights, they will do something. This will be a goldmine to print money and/or Remaster, if they can get all the rights in one place for the old games...which has been the problem forever w/ this entire franchise.
It wouldn't also surprise me to see more Remasters and whatnot, given how well Halo MCC did. I wouldn't be surprised to see MCC-like Collection Remasters like say of the entire Fable and Gears of War franchise - especially since some of these ain't on PC (i.e. Fable 2 Complete's missing on PC; and so is Gears 2,3,and Judgment on PC).
And certainly, Microsoft did Remaster older stuff like Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Rise of Nations, and Halo MCC - remasters and/or remakes of MechWarrior stuff would be like a license to print money basically here on PC.
Also, if Microsoft needs to - they could always just probably re-release and/or re-master old Heavy Gear games (which Activision holds) and make a sequel to those, if any MechWarrior rights need to be settled on first...or if it's too difficult to still sort the MechWarrior mess out w/ older titles.
Post edited February 01, 2022 by MysterD