MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries delayed to December, now Epic Games Store exclusive

The launch of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, the first-person, simulator-style combat game set in the BattleTech universe, has been delayed once more. According to today’s announcement, Mercenaries will now launch on Dec. 10 as an Epic Games Store exclusive for a period of one year. Fans upset about either the delay or the shift from Valve’s Steam marketplace are being directed to an FAQ document for instructions on how to request a refund.

Mercenaries was originally slated to launch some time in 2018. In December of that year the team pushed it back to Sept. 2019. In today’s announcement, the team at Piranha says it now needs an additional few months “to put considerable more quality into the game while also giving us the time needed to localize to other languages and to put considerable effort into marketing the game’s release.”

The deadline for requesting a refund is Sept. 1.

This isn’t the first game to promise delivery via Steam and then pull the rug out from under waiting customers. Most recently the team behind Shenmue 3 made the announcement that it would also be an Epic Games Store exclusive. Shortly thereafter, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said his company would issue refunds out of its own coffers for Kickstarter backers angered by the switch from Steam.

This is also just another example of Epic being very aggressive in securing exclusives for its new storefront, which offers developers much higher margins on sales of their games compared to Steam.