MechWarrior Online's Founder's Program Highly Successful

News
By Catherine Cai
published

MechWarrior Online's Founder's Program has been extremely successful.

Though MechWarrior Online is still in closed beta, with an expected release date targeting somewhere at the end of 2012, its ingenious preorder deal, dubbed the Founder's Program, has already managed to rake in a pile of cash.

Said pile of cash is a figure hovering somewhere around $5 million.

The Founder's Program allows players to pay for different packs of in-game goodies, ranking from Veteran ($30) to Legendary ($120). These packs include MCs unique from the other in-game currency C-bills in that they can be earned exclusively through real currency exchange. Dropping money on the Founder's Program endows players with other benefits, including special forum tags, Founder's Mechs, and access to the closed beta.

Though the Founder's Program was an unconventional way to raise capital to support MechWarrior Online, it's managed to make MechWarrior Online somewhat unique from other free-to-play titles.

Infinite Game, MechWarrior Online's publisher, will used the funding to continue supporting MechWarrior Online.

If you're interested in hearing more about MechWarrior Online, check out our preview. 

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Catherine Cai
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • boiler1990
    Worked for me. Been pleased with the beta so far. Can't wait for the full release.
    Reply
  • bin1127
    isn't this just like kickstarter? Guess you can't complain about the guy with the uber mech when he helped fund the game.
    Reply
  • Kami3k
    bin1127isn't this just like kickstarter? Guess you can't complain about the guy with the uber mech when he helped fund the game.
    Idiot.

    The 2 things special about those mechs are 25% more credit gain, and a unique look.

    They are not uber at all.

    I have a feeling you are the type of player that cries when a type 59 kills them in World of Tanks.
    Reply
  • Bean007
    Honestly I think the older MechWarrior is much better then this and would rather pay for that then what there putting out. The matches are small just plan simple. Better F2P games then this.
    Reply
  • @Bean007
    Mechwarrior: Living Legends is also very good.
    Reply
  • djscribbles
    I was astonished by the number of people stomping around with legendary tags. I guess I didn't realize just how popular/beloved the franchise was, because I nearly laughed out of my chair when I saw they had a 120$ founders level.

    That said, I've been having a great time so far in the game.

    edit: For what it's worth, the founders mechs don't give you a tremendous in game advantage. They follow the same rules as normal mechs, except you get a little extra 'play' money, and I believe the mounting points are unique. The biggest advantage to founders is getting to skip the grind through the trial mechs, and jump straight to your own mech that you can configure how you want.
    Reply
  • I have been in the MWO beta and am a legendary. For me, I paid at that level to show my support to bring the Mechs back into the PC gaming world and to show my support to the team behind MWO.

    Thing is, at $5 Million, I am hoping that this is a good indicator for another game developer I also plan on contributing too, Chris Robert's Star Citizen/Squadron 42. It follows the same course of the more you pay the more perks, but it doesn't seem that it is game changing.

    Also as for the Founders Mechs, the mechs themselves offer no advantage in so far as special abilities or weapon placements. As others have said, they grant you a percentage in credits. The other advantage, depending on the founder level you start at you will already have a mech in a certain weight class and don't need to save up for it. Legendary founder gives you 1 Mech in each of the 4 weight classes.
    Reply
  • outlw6669
    DjScribblesI was astonished by the number of people stomping around with legendary tags. I guess I didn't realize just how popular/beloved the franchise was, because I nearly laughed out of my chair when I saw they had a 120$ founders level.That said, I've been having a great time so far in the game.edit: For what it's worth, the founders mechs don't give you a tremendous in game advantage. They follow the same rules as normal mechs, except you get a little extra 'play' money, and I believe the mounting points are unique. The biggest advantage to founders is getting to skip the grind through the trial mechs, and jump straight to your own mech that you can configure how you want.Nope, the hardpoints and locations are identical to any matching non-founders 'mech.
    The only advantage they give is a 25% C-Bill boost in matches played with one.
    Well, that and not having to grind trial mechs in order to purchase your first owned 'mech (which may be changed to 1 free 'mech of choice on joining anyways).

    Anyways, glad to hear the Founders Program was able to infuse some much needed capital.
    The MWO devs are excellent, IMO, and have a very high level of interaction with the community; in part I am sure because of the group funding nature of this game.
    I am really looking forward to the 23rd and promises of much new content with the patch :)
    Reply
  • sarkaukar
    The author should consider taking some college courses. She is like many people who do not comprehend everything she reads while taken things out of context. How about quoting the last paragraph of the article this information was derived from correctly instead of putting your own spin on it.

    From Gamasutra

    The money IGP has picked up from the Founder's Program preorders will go toward Piranha's efforts developing MechWarrior Online and supporting it post-launch. The independent publisher has two other free-to-play titles it intends to launch open betas for later this year: MechWarrior Tactics and Sins of a Dark Age.
    Reply
  • hythos
    I have donated for three Founders' accounts myself, so that I can have two friends play on accounts when they come over to my place, and will be able to use the Founders' mechs to increase cash-flow for those accounts...
    Reply