Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries delayed to December, Now Epic Games Store exclusive

Developer Piranha Games has announced the delay of their mech-action game Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries. Originally planned for a September release, the new date is December 10th. Furthermore, the PC-only title is going to be an Epic Games Store exclusive. The news comes from the studio themselves in a development update.

It’s been an insane 17 years since the last single-player title in the Mechwarrior series landed in the hands of mech fans all over the world. A rather crass development for a genre which lived its height of popularity throughout the 1990s. It’s not like there were’nt any mech games to play during the almost two decades. It’s just that they were either online games or not real-time action shooters.

In 2016 then finally, genre fans were not only thrilled by the news that a single-player mech game was in development, but that the cult Mechwarrior series was being brought back to life. Development wasn’t as quick as fans would have wanted, and Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries was already delayed into 2019 last year, but seeing how long the iconic mechanical battling series stayed dormant, the news that the September release date will not be met and instead pushed three months into December is rather acceptable.

What’s likely to get on the nerves of prospect mech pilots is the concurrent announcement that Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries joins the ranks of Heavy Rain, The Division II, Borderlands 3 and many others of becoming solely available on the Epic Games Store. The rather new PC gaming digital storefront has been in constant controversy due to making exclusive deals all the while offering a very barebones user experience. Just today, CEO of Epic announced that Cloud Saves were enabled. But not for all games, just a few select. Rather shockingly slow implementation for a store which offers a light selection of games compared to Steam.