Mechwarrior Creator Advises Against Selling Rights to Games

[DeJaVu]

News that a fresh Mechawarrior game was in development and that the original creator of the intellectual property, Jordan Weisman, was involved in the project, was welcome earlier in the year by fans of big metal robots that run around firing missiles and lasers.

With Weisman talking about bringing the series back to its roots and offering an experience once again centered on mech warfare, cooldowns and limb targeting, a lot of people neglected the little detail that, in order for Smith & Tinker to make a new Mechwarrior, it has to pay Microsoft for the rights to create videogames based on the franchise, even if the company now plays host to the man who initially designed the intellectual property.

Talking to Gamasutra, Weisman himself sought to clarify the situation while also warning other creators about the potential pitfalls of not taking care of their property. He said that “You know, for twenty years, or a little less, we carefully managed those properties MechWarrior and Shadowrun. We made sure all the video games, the novels, the games were all really woven together.”

All of this was done through FASA Corporation and FASA Interactive. Once they hit a rough patch, the company was sold to WizKids, which was then sold to Topps that was later acquired by Michael Eisner. This resulted in a situation in which “once that ownership got a little fractured, it became really difficult to manage cohesively and I think the property suffered.”

Now, the new Mechwarrior game needs to be created with the man who originally thought of the universe, Jordan Weisman, continually consulting with Microsoft and with Eisiner to make sure that they approve of what he puts together. Let's just hope that, at some point, the software giant doesn't decide to take over the whole project and make another formulaic and unsuccessful Mechwarrior.