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In the interests of clarity, I haven't included editorial opinions from Daeron, Phil or myself.
(Responding to a rumour that I prodded him about in the Twitch chat.) PGI are unaware of any plan by MS to create MechAssault 3, and have not been tapped by MS to create it. If however MS ever wanted PGI to create a new title they'd certainly be open to the discussion. Russ wasn't personally a big fan of MechAssault, but thinks it would be good on the basis that it generates more interest in the franchise.
It's been a year since a Mech Pack created a good return on investment for PGI. Unsurprising given the game has been played for 7 years; people have tons of Mechs. PGI are going to more selective in what they release. Next pack won't be June. It will be special and will have defined role.
MWO by itself is not by itself enough to sustain a company of PGI's size. Lots riding on MW5. MW5 has to be successful to be able to carry on with Mechwarrior development. Hopefully we will see many more years of MWO, that depends to some extent on the success of MW5.
On FP: PGI is committed to the feature. Patch was pretty rough. 3rd hotfix incoming. We did communicate the feature very robustly on the forums and that the initial release was going to be story mode and matchmaker. They will continue to iterate on it - maybe up to 6 months - until we get it into a state that everyone's happy with. Some things are off limits if they require way too much engineering, too many buckets, etc.
Acknowledged concerns about ongoing monetisation of MWO given core customer base has so many Mechs and therefore less incentive to buy more packs. Floated general idea that maybe down the track might need to change to a base subscription model. Not going to happen anytime soon. (Note: pains were taken to point that this is just 'spitballing' about the future, in response to questions in chat, not a plan.)
On MechCon: has gone through a lot of iteration internally. Last year was big and expensive - more expensive than ideal. That was because of the original plan to launch MW5 in December last year. Harder to plan for this year because MW5 ships in September and MechCon is December. They were thinking MechCon this year might be unaffordable. Hopes community would understand that it's a big expense for PGI, the only financial sponsor. Key costs were pods (one off) but ongoing cost of having an onsite world championship ($100K or more). Cost would be a third if we take out the onsite WC. Would need about 1000 people to make it worthwhile.
World Championships: if Ben and his team are willing to run it remotely, offsite, it can go ahead. Need to make a final decision very quickly. Some talk about changing format from Stock Mode to something else, but nothing concrete.
MechCon 2019: It would be Dec 6-7 at Vancouver Convention Center is booked. Same participating companies, but WCs would be run offsite, ie. with pilots in different locations. In response to chat expressing concern about the time and focus MechCon takes away from the game, Russ says MechCon does not reduce development time or focus.
On FP: incredibly positive feedback on Story Mode and Matchmaking. But they are committed to fixing the concerns on faction changing and drop decks.
MW5: in this climate for pre-orders, we did exceptionally well. Acknowledges some critics wont pre-order as they are negative about PGI. Some people - an increasing number, he feels - are positive. Feels the best way to address the critics is to release a great game. Believes MW5 will hold up even better and longer than MW4 because of technology base, modding capability, procedurally generated missions, co-op mode. Believes it will have decade or more of longevity. Reinforced importance of its success in terms of having any developer (including PGI) continue to develop MW titles into the future.
Edited by Appogee, 03 July 2019 - 02:24 AM.
