In the run-up to the release of Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries we should give appreciation for what everyone at Piranha Games have done for Mechwarrior & Battletech. Not enough credit is given to the amazing folks who put their hearts, blood, sweat, & tears into this franchise.
Back in 2009, PGI plus Smith & Tinker wanted to resurrect Mechwarrior from the catacombs of Microsoft. Yet no publishers wanted to fund the development of MW:3015, even after going public with a visual slice trailer on IGN. This didn't deter PGI as they still went on to lay the groundwork for Mechwarrior Online with the help of crowdfunding and minor publishing from IGP.
In 2012 not only did the people at PGI manage to put out a F2P multiplayer Mechwarrior in CryEngine in 2012, it also re-launched a lot of the iconic mechs by hiring the amazingly talented Art God known as Alex Iglesias aka Flying Debris. For the first time in history, PGI established an annual MechCon in 2016 that gathered all the active branches of the Battletech and Mechwarrior universe under one roof in Vancouver to come together and celebrate.
In 2017 Harmony Gold used their copyright trolling to once again damage and extort all of the Battletech and Mechwarrior artists at Catalyst Game Labs, Harebrained Schemes, and Piranha Games for their redesigned Unseen mechs. Here, PGI took a stand and saved everybody's asses (especially those that had defaulted the case) and basically ensured that the Unseen are back for good. If not for PGI, we would never have gotten the Marauder and Warhammer back!
In 2019, PGI is putting all their energy and funds into making the first singleplayer Mechwarrior in SEVENTEEN years. No longer hidden away by Microsoft's disregard for Mechwarrior, we are getting a singleplayer Mechwarrior game developed in the state-of-the-art Unreal Engine 4 in 2019.