MechWarrior 4 Free Release Held Up By Microsoft

The planned free release of MechWarrior 4 and its expansions is apparently still coming but has been held up for unknown reasons by its original publisher Microsoft according MekTek, the MW4 modding team who'll distribute the mech combat sim.

"It would seem that the Free Release is held up at Microsoft and it is unknown to us and our Studio when the Free Release will be given the final go ahead," MekTek writes.

MekTek notes that "due to the demands placed upon us by industry lawyers to release the Mechwarrior4 Free release we were forced to insure our Studio at a premium rate to meet the Microsoft standard," and is soliciting donations to cover costs.

The studio also reveals it has "had meetings with the various people/groups that control the Mechwarrior/BattleTech IP (Jordan Weisman, CGL, VWE) and have positioned ourselves favorably with all involved" and is "currently exploring a variety of avenues and determining which is the best course for MekTek and our community to take."

A brand new MechWarrior game is in development for PC and Xbox 360 at Piranha Games, rebooting the franchise and planned to have co-op support. For now, the newest way to play MW is the authorised Crysis mod MechWarrior: Living Legends.