It's been a little while since it was announced that the mech action game Mechwarrior 4 would be released for free. However it's taken a little while longer to get that game out to the masses. A recent update on the Mektek Studios web site says the release is coming "very shortly" but that they have some hurdles to deal with.

Some of them are technical (removing the game's DRM, replacing the online matchmaking service and creating a more streamlined patching system) but some are on the legal side as well. Ultimately the free release of Mechwarrior 4 seems to have been a much bigger undertaking than the volunteers in charge of it thought it would be and they state, "We hope the community will continue to support us during this very busy time to ensure we have the best possible hardware in place for this release."

[Via Blue's News]