What’s up with MechWarrior anyway?
Posted by
Mop (aka rburriel)
Jul 23 '20, 12:57
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Been doing a little research. I wonder if this should be a Wikipedia article...
Battletech is a table top game with giant robots. Except, of course, giant robots isn’t an original idea. And FASA - the Battletech company - used some giant robot designs that they licensed from a model company. I personally remember buying and trying to build one of these giant robot models. I was never much of a model builder and it came out pretty bad. What’s unclear is whether this model company had the rights to the giant robot models in the first place (From who? More on that in a second.) And even if they did have the rights, were they allowed to re-license those models. You see, the designs came from a Japanese anime called Macross (OK, you see where this is going, right?) And in everyone but Japan, Macross was licensed to a company called Harmony Gold as “Robotech”. And Harmony Gold wasn’t happy that their giant robots were being used in a table top game that they hadn’t licensed and weren’t earning any money from. So they sued Battletech who eventually settled the lawsuit, withdrawing those specific giant robot designs, heretofore referred to as the “Unseen” robots in the Battletech universe.
So what does this have to do with MechWarrior? Well, MechWarrior is essentially the brand used for Battletech in all things video game. The FASA had licensed their product on a number of fronts, such as books and video games. When Activision picked up the Battletech license, they called the series “MechWarrior”. The settlement between FASA and Harmony Gold was so abrupt that between MechWarrior 2 and MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, the un-licensed robots disappeared.
After Activision’s license expired, Microsoft decided they wanted to get into the giant robot business but rather than licensing Battletech from FASA, they just straight up bought FASA, turning it into one of their gaming studios. They released a few MechWarrior games before shuttering the studio.
The original creator of Battletech then started up his own company and licensed the rights to Battletech from Microsoft. But since Microsoft were the actual rights holders, they wouldn’t allow a Battletech game to be released on the PS3 so it was hard to find a developer to make a new MechWarrior. Until Piranha Games stepped up and developed MechWarrior Online. Except that in one of their updates, Piranha Games straight up used the “Unseen” models (or a close resemblance) and Harmony Gold came knocking (which is to say, they came suing). A settlement in 2018 appears to have given Piranha Games license to use all the models, presumably giving Harmony Gold a cut of the money.
All of this comes full circle to my first exposure to Battletech which was with an online game called Multiplayer BattleTech 3025 from Kesmai. Kesmai had started as a developer of online games for AOL. But they soon branched out into a stand-alone game developer and released betas or free-to-play games, of which Multiplayer BattleTech 3025 was one, long before video gaming Battletech adopted the MechWarrior name. It was an overwhelming experience to be playing 3D giant robot games online against other robot jockeys. And, frankly, it was quite a technical achievement. Ultimately, though, it didn’t last and Kesmai shut down. Now I can relive those days with MechWarrior Online.
P.S. I wrote the Kesmai article at Wikipedia.
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