Rampage, on 17 August 2016 - 09:54 AM, said:
Yes, he did say any chance of upgrading the engine rested on on thing. He did not elaborate on that but I strongly suspect that it is the negotiations with Microsoft over the continued use of the MechWarrior license. I do not know what length of time the original agreement was for but I doubt that it was for more than 5 or 6 years. That would mean it is due to expire and must be extended or renegotiated. Without that they will have to stop development and there will be no need for a new engine. If Microsoft wants more money then it may no longer be economically feasible to renew the license based on the games declining game population and decreased revenue intake. Spending the money for a engine upgrade would be out of the question.
Of course, this is just me speculating about what Russ' comments might have meant but that was the first thing that crossed my mind when he made that comment during the town hall and it does make sense.
MWO already went through the that and he did state they now have mechwarrior franchise till 2020 I thought everyone was aware of this already. If MWO is going to make it to 2020 it's gonna need a new engine and unreal is the most solid choice I think. It's been around for so long and recently changed its developer usage requirements. For the support you get and foundation provided I think it's a sound choice.