Okay, I'm back and I'm going to explain a couple of things here.
Let's start with a few basic things:
1. Mechassault was never the successor to Mechwarrior 4.
Mechassault is its own line in same way how Mechcommander is its own line. The Mechwarrior line has always translated atleast the basics of the boardgame (yes, even Mechwarrior 4 does this). The first two Mechassault games exist on consoles merely because Microsoft wanted to have titles for Xbox that draw a lot of players like the Mechwarrior and Mechcommander games did before them. Phantom War is the only exception.
2. The license stagnated with Mechassault.
Yes you read it right, Smith and Tinker got the license back from Microsoft because they left it stagnant after the last Mechassault game. And to explain a couple of things about the license here, Fasa originally licensed the first 2 mechwarrior titles to Activision and they made millions upon millions of dollars with just the MW2 games (which are to this day hailed by many to be the best Battletech games of all time). However the license was shifted to Microprose because of delays at Activision, Mechwarrior 3 was never as successful as Mechwarrior 2 but still got quite a following.
After this the license was moved to Microsoft for Mechwarrior 4. Mechwarrior 4 rivals Mechwarrior 2 in many areas, it got several expansions and became very widespread. However, Fasa folded in 2001 leaving the license for electronic publishing rights with Microsoft. It was only a year later that Mechassault was produced so that Microsoft had a extra title for their then new Xbox console to compete with other consoles. Mechassault was eventually no longer interesting enough to be a Xbox only product, so it was licensed to Majesco Entertainment for the Nintendo DS with mixed success.
So in essense, the big sellers here were MW2 and MW4. Calling MW2 and MW3 trainwrecks is quite frankly ignorance.
And for more information on the general Battletech license and how it hopped around, watch this:
http://thefoundary.b...battletech.html
3. Calling Mechwarrior fans are elitist snobs
It was the mechwarrior fans who made electronic license worth investing in, never the Mechassault fans. The Mechassault fans were merely lucky that Microsoft held the license at a time they were desperate for titles to compete with the Playstation 2 and Gamecube.
Mechassault was catered towards the audience that prefered fast pased action to story and substance. I'm not saying that this is a bad genre, but I think that it's a waste of a universe that is extremely fleshed out and mature.
The Mechwarrior fans want to play in the Battletech universe with all its facets and quirks. There are many factions with a great deal of history and important personalities. The MW4 fandom got introduced to the Fedcom civil war for instance and are familiar with events and mechs from this timeperiod (Uziel, Fafnir, Templar, etc). Throwing all these things out will leave only a shallow game that only has a few mech names in common with the sourcematerial.
Mechassault could have just as well been its own universe, but Microsoft wanted to draw in the Mechwarrior and Mechcommander crowds for sales. The "elitist snobs" are depended upon for sales.
4. Mechwarrior Online and Mechassault 3
There is also some good news. The massive interest in Mechwarrior Online also paved the way for Mechassault 3, so we all win here. We all get to pick the games we want.
And for some clarification, I don't hate Mechassault or its fans. I merely think that Mechassault missed out on a ton of things that would have greatly enhanced the experience.
Edited by Stormwolf, 17 February 2012 - 12:40 PM.