The Mechwarrior franchise has been back in MMO news a bunch lately, first with the revitalization of the MMO Mechwarrior Online and second with the big buyout of Piranha Games undertaken by Enad Global 7 just after its buyout of Daybreak, making them sibling studios. But today’s news is actually for the other Mechwarrior title, Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries, which rolled out to the Epic Games Store as an exclusive back in 2019, followed by launches on the Microsoft Store and Xbox Game Pass for PC last year. It was meant to launch everywhere else last December, but like multiple studios, Piranha wisely opted to delay its 4-person multiplayer co-op/singleplayer title rather than be crushed by the launch of Cyberpunk 2077.
But now the new launch is upon us, and it’s multi-faceted, as on May 27th MechWarrior 5 will launch on PC (Steam and GOG) as well as Xbox (One, Series X, and Series S) at the same time as the launch of the game’s first major DLC, Heroes of the Innersphere.
“Welcome to the year 3015! It’s a hell of a time to be alive. Humanity has colonized thousands of star systems spanning a vast region of space known as the Inner Sphere. The golden age of cooperation and advancement is now a distant memory, and humanity has once again splintered into disparate factions all vying for supremacy. In the midst of these Succession Wars, power hungry Mercenaries like yourself are in a privileged position to capitalize big time. It’s dangerous work but that’s why you’re here, right? If you’ve got an itch to blast, wreck, stomp and go all out ballistic, step inside and become your own weapon of war!”
Piranha is also promising a suite of basegame changes for existing players, including achievements on all platforms, crossplay on all systems, and even a way for folks who don’t own the DLC to scope it out by playing with someone who does. Players can expect a new campaign story beginning, optional tutorial, gamepad support, infantry changes, improved radar, better fog, rebalanced mission gen, and even UI and audio perks. And as for the DLC, that adds a new career mode, more warzones and hubs, 11 new questlines, seven new mechs and 50 new variants, a bunch of new heroes and hero mechs, air support calls, new weapons, and gobs more.
Notably, the price for the game is also coming down, from $49.99 to $29.99 on all platforms. You can point your eyeballs at the official site for now and pick your poison for preorders: Steam, Xbox, and GOG.
