Piranha Games has just announced that Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries will be exclusively available on the Epic Games Store. In a post to their website, the company detailed their reasoning behind the move and their plans for any backers who are upset with the news.
It boils down to the fact that moving exclusively to the Epic Games Store allows them the “opportunity to make sure MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries meets our internal goal of creating the best MechWarrior game possible.” This implies a degree of budgetary help, but that isn’t too surprising at this point. Making games is expensive, and risky, and Epic offering to share that risk for exclusivity is a well-known part of the industry at this point.
Of interest to people who had already pre-ordered, and essentially backed, the game, is the following excerpt from the statement:
As such, you can get yourself a full refund, without complications. The bonus MechWarrior Online content that was used as a lure will not be affected at all, and you make ours like a bandit with some free stuff. Now, it is not all roses and ice-cream because anybody who backed the game wanted to play it, and anyone who requests a refund has an issue with the way Epic has been doing business.
Fans looking to obtain refunds from their pre-order of any tier are able to do so by September 1st. Pre-order refunds of any tier will be refunded in full. Additionally, those seeking refunds will be able to keep all bonus MechWarrior Online content from the Standard, Collector and Ultimate Editions of the pre-order, which amount to $100, $180, and $300 dollars worth of in-game currency and content for MechWarrior Online including all bonus items like XP, premium time, badges, decals, cockpit items and more, depending on which pre-order tier purchased.
From Piranha Games’ point of view, this is the best course of action they could have taken, in light of the move to the Epic Games Store. It will bring some negative attention their way regardless, but at least this way there is none of the extra negative attention that has dogged games like Shenmue 3.
