Ride-or-die fans of MechWarrior Online are getting plenty of rewards with the 2020 edition of the annual rewards program, which offers up ‘Mech bays, cockpit items, C-Bills, or ‘Mechs from previous years’ programs depending on the number of matches played or purchases made.
As for what else is happening in the game, the same announcement post points to the Trick or Treat 6 tournament and the re-hiring of Daeron “Bombadil” Katz, a former contracted employee, to a full-time community management job. In that letter from Katz, he promises to “take a hard look at how Piranha Games can continue to improve the game, the experience, communication, and if practical, build on the resources available for continued development over the coming years.”
And developer Piranha Games does indeed have years: Katz’s letter pulls a quote from studio president Russ Bullock, who says that Piranha has tied down the MechWarrior license for another five years, while the post detailing the 2020 rewards program promises the team is “very excited to plan and execute on the next phase of MechWarrior Online.”
Readers will recall that vague promises of MWO’s longevity aren’t entirely new. We’ve noted some rather odd behavior in the beginning of the year with an official stream signing off with “Keeping playing. Don’t worry about it,” while the game itself has kicked out patches in July, August, and September, though the last roadmap post was in February 2020.
The studio has mostly been focused on creating and developing things for the single-player title MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, particularly with the upcoming release of its Heroes of the Inner Sphere DLC pack, which seems to suggest this five-year license extension will mostly service that game unless there’s some more official plans laid out in the future.
For those who are still hopping in the command couch of MWO on the regular, there are a number of specific criteria that need to have been met to earn your annual rewards, so it’ll be worth a fan’s while to check the link and read the breakdown.
