MechWarrior fans will be pleased to know that the teaser trailer released earlier this week (see below) was indeed for a new MechWarrior game. The title is in development at Piranha Games and is said to be a “reboot” of the video game arm of the BattleTech franchise, the previous game being MechWarrior 4: Vengeance way back in 2001.

Piranha Games doesn’t need any fancy titles and has simply gone with the name of MechWarrior for the game. If that doesn’t tell the fan what it’s all about then I don’t know what does. For everyone else a giant robot on the front of the game packaging should pretty much do it.

The game will be set on the planet Deshler circa 3015 (so that’s pre-clan for those that are taking notes) during an invasion, and is planned to feature a full single-player campaign, four-player co-op player and a range of other multiplayer options. The budget is still being discussed at the moment, largely because the game hasn’t found a publisher yet. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

Apparently the game will have a sense of “information warfare”, allowing the player to use unmanned drones or light scout mechs to survey the battlefield. Following this you can pound away at your targets in a variety of mechs, and sticking in one mech will reward the player through experience. This experience translates into, for example, better accuracy and damage from your mechs weapon systems. The game will also be different depending on what type of mech you choose.

The BattleTech franchise has never been that popular here in the UK, but that’s largely because most of the gaming equipment 0r books aren’t widely available. However, the games were released here so it shows there is some demand for fighting in giant robots. I was only introduced to the franchise when I was on holiday in Florida and I bought three BattleTech novels. They’re great fun if you manage to get hold of any of them.

Finally, some other good news to come out of this announcement is that MechWarrior 4: Vengeance is to be released for free alongside its expansion packs in the near future.

The game is being developed for the PC and Xbox 360, but there’s no word on a release date yet as the developer is yet to find a publisher. For more information and screenshots check out IGN’s article on the reboot.

(Image Source: IGN)