smith-and-tinker posts

Last summer fans of the MechWarrior franchise were excited when news hit that a free version of MechWarrior 4 would be released. However its been some time since that announcement was made and there's been no real updates on what's happening on that front.

This week, the team behind the freeversion at MekTek posted up an update on their site declaring that "the release is ready". So what's the hold up. In a word: Microsoft. According to the site the game's developer and owner Microsoft "has endured several administrative changes which currently impede the release." However meetings are scheduled to be held later this month and MechWarrior's current owners Smith and Tinker believe that after those meetings take place "it will only take 1-2 more days before permission is granted."

While developer Piranha Games is working on a revival of the Mechwarrior game franchise, it's looking like the action-sim game series could be getting attention from Hollywood. Our sister site Joystiq, working with unnamed sources, is reporting that a Mechwarrior feature film is in the works.

The movie rights to the franchise are currently owned by The Tornante Company, which is headed up by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. According to Joystiq the movie version will have a screenplay from Michael Gordon. His previous credits include 300 and this year's G.I. Joe flick. It sounds like any Mechwarrior movie is still a long way from completion but with the financial success of the Transformers films perhaps Hollywood will be more interested in such a project.

PC gamers all over were happy to hear about a revival of the MechWarrior sci-fi action sim franchise earlier this year but now comes word that all may not be all wine and roses with this new version of the series. According to IGN Harmony Gold, the owner of the Robotech franchise, have asked IGN to remove the trailer that was used to introduce the new game series. That trailer has since been released out in the open and has been hosted on a number of sites including Big Download. As of the posting of this article, Big Download has yet to receive such an request to pull the trailer.

According to the story, Harmony Gold claims that there was content used in the trailer that are trademarked by them as part of the Robotech franchise. It's currenty unknown what specific content Harmony Gold objects to in the trailer and there's been no response from developer Piranha Games about this new development.

Last month the PC game community got a big surprise when it was revealed that a new Mechwarrior game is in the works. The game rights to the property are currently owned by Smith and Tinker who also own the game rights to other former FASA Interactive games. In a new chat with GameSpot, FASA and Smith and Tinker founder Jordon Wiseman hints that another FASA property, Crimson Skies, could get its own game revival

Crimson Skies imagines an alternate 1930's where flying planes, rather than driving cars, is the main mode of personal transportation. A PC game from Microsoft was released in 2000 and an Xbox title came out in 2003. Wiseman states, "I think Crimson Skies is something we'd love to get some energy around, and we have some devious plans--we'll see if those materialize."

Don't look for a revival of Shadowrun anytime soon, though. The cyberpunk-themed RPG was transformed into a multiplayer FPS by Microsoft in 2007 that failed to attract an audience. Wiseman states, "Shadowrun was recently...not treated well...shall we say, so the thought was let a little time pass before approaching that one again." In the meantime Smith and Tinker just launched their first original PC game, a Pokemon-like online collectible card themed game called Nanovor.

This trailer reveals the first in-game footage from MechWarrior, the game that promises to reboot the entire MechWarrior series. It looks like the first step toward a full reboot is the use of plenty of explosive ordinance.

Download HD MechWarrior Gameplay Trailer (156 MB)

Today's official announcement that a new MechWarrior game is in the works is big news just by itself. But there's another totally unexpected revelation that fans of the game series will be happy to hear. The franchise's current owner Smith and Tinker have revealed that the last PC game in the series, MechWarrior 4 will be released for free in the near future along with its expansion packs.

The game, released in 2000 by Microsoft, will be repackaged and released via Mektek Studios via the Battletech.net web site. It's all a part of the 25th anniversary of BattleTech, the sci-fi board game which is the basis for the MechWarrior series.

As predicted in the teaser trailers that were released earlier this week, IGN has now confirmed that a new MechWarrior game is indeed in the works at Vancouver-based Piranha Games but under the supervision of the game's current owners Smith and Tinker. The article is describing the new game as a "reboot" of the MechWarrior franchise and indeed the game is just being called MechWarrior (much like the new Star Trek movie is simply titled Star Trek)..

In an interview about the new game (which doesn't have a release date or even a publisher yet) Smith and Tinker co-founder Jordan Weisman and Piranha Games president Russ Bullock chat at lenght about their plans for the new game which will be firmly in the sim-style of title that the previous PC MechWarrior games were like (no arcade style action here). For your purists our there the game is set around the beginning of the Fourth Succession War in the MechWarrior universe. Features like four-player co-op, possible cross-platform multiplayer between the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game and more are mentioned. The game is also the latest title announced that will be based on Epic's Unreal Engine 3.

All in all it sound like this new MechWarrior will be much like fans of the previous games in the series have enjoyed; a hardcore sim-style experience (gotta keep those heat sinks straight) but with some new features as well. You can check out a proper trailer for the game at IGN's site (and yes, it's supposed to be in-game footage, not a CGI trailer).

Fans have been awaiting a new Mechwarrior game for the PC for years and today a new video hit the Interwebs that suggests that wait may be coming to an end. The 10 second video shows a really big mech-like foot making its presence known on a unsuspecting city street.

So is this truly a teaser for a new Mechwarrior game? We know that Microsoft, who published the last PC game in the series (Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries back in 2002), sold off the Mechwarrior interactive game rights to a company called Smith and Tinker some time ago. That company was formed by Jordan Weisman, who helped to create the Mechwarrior series in the first place when he formed FASA. Voodoo Extreme hints that the developer behind this teaser might be Piranha Games, a Vancouver-based studio who has done a variety of work over the years but nothing quite so high-profile as this. Hopefully we will get more info on this soon.

Update: Looks like IGN will get the reveal of the game early in the morning on Thursday . . . and what do you know; one of the folks who will be interviewed will be Jordan Weisman. Also Voodoo Extreme has added two more teaser trailers to the site that . . . well, don't show that much.