Free-To-Play MechWarrior Online Planned For Late 2012

Developer Piranha Games has announced that MechWarrior Online will be released as a free-to-play title in the second half of 2012, roughly three years after it was first announced. Despite the casual stigma associated with many free-to-play titles, Piranha creative director Bryan Ekman and president Russ Bullock tell PC Gamer the upcoming title will follow on the strategic, squad-based combat found in the original MechWarrior franchise. Players will be able to spend real money on in-game items, though Ekman said items that provide a "tactical advantage" would have to be earned through gameplay rather than payments. The news comes as titles from Warner Bros.' DC Universe Online to Sony's upcoming Planetside 2 announce plans to use a free-to-play business model to increase their player bases. Online matches in MechWarrior Onlinewill support multiple four-person squads, engaging in what the developers call "information warfare" to outposition opponents. "We want to make gameplay be less about an arms race, where you start in a light Mech but you really want to get into an assault Mech, because it’s the best thing there is," Ekman told PC Gamer. Piranha has been silent on MechWarrior Online since it was first announced in September 2009. The game will be published by newly formed Infinite Game Publishing.