NephyrisX, on 21 May 2015 - 10:30 PM, said:
I honestly couldn't come up with a better thread name, so there.
Anyway, I ask this because after witnessing quite a number of whiny posters complaining about how "PGI is a sham" and "we should bankrupt them" etc,etc after the recent nerfs, it got me wondering how others feel about this topic. What are your opinions?
I also have trouble figuring out what company outside of PGI would be willing to take on the prospect of holding on the the Mechwarrior franchise considering how niche it is, and the first real attempt at resurrecting it only happened over a bleeting decade after the last MW game. Could it be said that PGI saved MW from complete obscurity then, since no other company appears interested in it outside of Harmony Gold trying to milk us via "lolsuemore"?
This is sort of echoing you but here goes:
Microsoft was sitting on the "Mechwarrior" IP they bought form FASA Interactive when FASA was dying out and since MechAssault they'd done nothing with it and had no intention to do anything with it. Microsoft owns a lot of IP like this. They bought it because it seemed like a good idea at the time then forgot they had it.
Along comes Jordan Wiesman and wanting to get back into the IP he invented, so he fishes around a bit, finds Russ and Bryan and they cook up a scheme to bring Mechwarrior back from the dead.
Once Russ and Bryan had raised enough capital to lease the IP from MS they were going to go back 3005 in the time line and make a traditional SP game with some net code bolted on as has been done in the past. They made the now famous and smacked down by Harmony Gold, video and shopped it around.
No publisher was interested in the IP. The business plan looked solid, but nobody wanted to invest in "Mechwarrior" They shopped the IP all over the world, nothing.
So Russ has a buddy who wants to get into games publishing, and he forms IGP who would then publish PGI's game and MWO was born.
Its not a matter of if PGI is worthy or not, its a matter that they are the ONLY ones even remotely interested in making a game.
So dump on PGI all you want folks, they're the only legal game in town. MWLL was in a gray area, tolerated by MS. They had some protection from MS by staying free and they had the understanding that if a for-profit enterprise ever formed around the Mechwarrior IP, they'd have to shut down.
Going negative on PGI and trying to starve them out is a great way to make sure we never see a Mechwarrior game again. Because doing so just proves MW isn't a viable product and MS will sit on the IP now and forever like EA does with "Multiplayer Battletech" and "Battletech" names. Because of EA's ownership of "Battletech" and the fact that they're sitting on it is the reason why the only other decent BT game is called "MegaMek"
Just giving you the truth folks. Flame me all you want and say bad things about PGI and their families, you won't change the facts I've just unspooled above.
Edited by Apnu, 22 May 2015 - 07:55 AM.