All Systems Nominal – MechWarrior Online Launches to Steam

MechWarrior Online launches to Steam along with faction warfare update.

After a few years of some honestly rocky development, Piranha Games’s MechWarrior Online is getting two major updates this week. The long anticipated factional warfare feature along with releasing and making the game client available through Steam.

Even back when the game was in beta, factional warfare was supposedly just on the horizon. While MechWarior is certainly rooted in giant mechs blasting each other to slag, for a lot of the fan base the greater political situations and machinations of the BattleTech universe are a major draw for the franchise. Whether it’s the great houses bitterly fighting for resources, the Inner Sphere desperately trying to fend of the Clan invasion, or ComStar being jerks to everyone – fans all have their favorite factions and characters, in addition to favorite mechs. Today the Faction Play phases of the development is going live, with more updates promised in the near future. Pilots will get to side with a Inner Sphere Great House or one of the invading Clans.

If this new updates isn’t enough to bring returning fans and founders back to the game, releasing the client to the largest PC digital distributor, Steam, is going to inject some new blood. Having spent some time away from the game, it was good to see that a fully fleshed out tutorial had been added. MechWarrior has a lot of hurdles for new players, so anything that gives them a fighting chance is a step in the right direction. The game is available free-to-play, with there being some package deals you can purchase through Steam to flesh out your pool of mechs.

There’s going to be a live stream of these announcements starting shortly. You can tune in at http://www.twitch.tv/piranhagames. I’ll be adding any further updates that follow.