MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is here, finally, after years of waiting. The newest game in the legendary BattleTech franchise brings with it a whole new level of destruction and fun for lovers of giant robots and smashing things. MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is set in 3015, a time in the lore when the remains of Star League still squabbled over dwindling resources and technology. This period, known to fans as the Third Succession War, picks up right at the beginning of the tabletop game and the successive properties. The various Noble houses of the Inner Sphere are still very much in flux, and the chaos is ripe for exploitation.
This new game brings about a ton of new and improved additions to the video game side of BattleTech. By including many different mechs and weapon systems that fans know and love, there’s plenty for hardcore followers to like. And by stapling on a new and improved destruction engine to bring the battlefields alive with carnage, graphics hounds have something to love too. This game being a PC-exclusive title though, is something a lot of people don’t like.
In short, maybe there’s a chance that MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries could come to consoles. Judging from the PC system requirements though, it’s a pretty beefy game, so a console version would require some massaging to get it to a comfortable place. Also, despite earlier statements, the exclusivity deal with Epic also likely stands in the way of a console port. So for now, we can just wait and hope.
Currently, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is a PC only game, and will only be available through the Epic Games Store. Piranha Games did express interest in bringing the game to Xbox One during a Q&A session at Mech-Con 2018. Piranha Games founder, Russ Bullock, said that he would “love to see MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries on Xbox One.” The response was prompted by a fan asking about a console version, and Bullock pointed to Xbox One’s mouse and keyboard support as a possible control method. Using that, the transition would be a bit easier. It’s no easy task to adapt a keyboard-driven control scheme to a controller, so Piranha might want to skip that for the console release.
