At least up to MechWarrior 4? Aren't they considered abandonware by now?

And it has a ton of votes on the Wishlist too: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/mechwarrior_mechcommander_series

Maybe I'm confused with something else, but I was under the impression that old Mechwarrior/Battletech is a legal minefield because of disputes over the mech designs (i.e., somebody claiming they're unauthorized rip-offs of Robotech/Macross designs or something like that).

Yeah I sem-figured it was something like that, but man the MechWarrior series belongs on GOG.

The old MechWarrior games are in legal limbo; Same as the No One Lives Forever games.

And , legally, Abadonware does not exist. A cinoabt still owns the riights to a game even if they don't sell it anymore, just like a publisher still owns the rights to a book even if it does not keep it in print.

Too bad. Any idea when they'll get out of limbo? Just kind of curious if GOG has ever touched base there and could be attempting to get them here.

One of the reasons to update IP laws that OOP things are automatically placed into the public domain after a short time.

Technically 70 years after the death of the creator. Oh wait, corporations never technically die.

I'm sure they're trying pretty hard because they would be a massive get, especially Mechwarrior 2. I was reading a bit and it looks like there was a settlement in the Mechwarrior case, but of course we can't know the terms of it. It's possible it doesn't allow for republishing the older games, or maybe Activision is somehow involved and just doesn't want to deal with it, or maybe something else. Who knows...

Hmmn interesting. I wish we knew what games GOG is trying to get.

Probably still a hard no huh ?

Reasons?

FASA
Activision
Microprose
Zipper Interactive
Microsoft
Piranha Games
Harebrained Schemes
and a bunch of Japanese mecha IP's

Good luck!

While we're at it let's do a shoutout to Heavy Gear 1 and 2 as well.

Microsoft owns the whole IP, and they never put anything on GOG. That's the primary reason.

The main reason is probably Piranha Games, the people who currently "own" the IP rights to the Mechwarrior franchise with their Mechwarrior Online & Mechwarrior 5 games, and have no financial interest in seeing the earlier Mechwarrior games re-released for sale to the public.

They merely have as many rights as MS licensed out to them.

not sure what the point would be if they are "out there" in perfectly working order
i should have never traded my HD copy of cyberstorm in for the one on gog for example
mechcommander too btw their tactical real time thing
would be nice to see that one on microprose

a new one i mean... not the old ones