Piranha Games announced today the intent to launch MechWarrior Online in the back half of next year. Now, this is something that has been circulating for a while, but finally, after quite a huge void of news on this front, the team-based mech sim is set to let us get our inner mech pilot on later next year.
One of the biggest parts of the game – and a focus of the developers – is the customization and organization of your mechs. You’ll be able to hook up with other players and define the entirety of the “guild” experience, even though it may not be a guild in the traditional sense of the word. You’ll be able to customize how your corporation functions, who joins, what the qualifications are, how ranks are handled, the mech names, visual appearance and all sorts of other stuff. This goes above and beyond customizing just the look and feel of your own units, but really customizing the entire multiplayer experience as a whole.
The developers also talked about the game being more than just a shooter, but basically “information warfare”. Who wins or loses is determined as much by how the flow of information is controlled in battle as it is by who has the bigger gun, which adds a huge tactical element to the game that might be a bit unfamiliar to those used to the shooter gameplay of previous MechWarrior games.
For more information on MechWarrior Online, hit up their official site and poke around a bit. You can hit the break here for some artwork of three of the mech designs from the game.
