Russ Bullock, president of Piranha Games, offered a lengthy update for MechWarrior Online on Monday. The news provided details about the Founder's Program while also talking about the beta timeline and eventual system specs. He said Closed Beta 1 status is expected to be achieved within the next week, and Closed Beta 2 -- when the team finally moves over to production hardware -- on July 10th.
"As we continue to ramp up the beta testers (drawn from those early purchasers of the Founder’s Program), the next milestone is the injection of the Founder’s Program assets on Aug. 7th," he said. "Yes, this date has shifted from July 17th to Aug 7th simply due to some key production hardware being delayed in arriving at the data center – proper testing on the new production hardware, ensures confidence the system can handle the demands of the exclusive Founder’s Program, hence the shift."
As for the system requirements, they are as follows:
MechWarrior Online Minimum System Spec
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66 GHz -- AMD Athlon II X2 245e
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT -- AMD Radeon HD 5600/5700
RAM: 4 GB
OS: Windows Vista 32-bit
DirectX: DX9
HDD Space: 4 GB
MechWarrior Online Recommended System Spec:
CPU: Intel Core i3-2500 -- AMD Athlon II X4 650
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 -- AMD Radeon HD 5830
RAM: 8 GB
OS: Windows 7 SP-1 64-Bit
DirectX: DX9
HDD Space: 4 GB
"Right now, a duo Core system is our minimum spec machine, but it is also our main focus of concern," he said. "It is playable on those specifications and I have tested it myself, but it is currently very much a minimum spec type of experience running on low-detail settings. It’s obvious that a Quad Core system is the key as even the earliest Core 2 Quad systems run the game very well and it is our goal (since there are still so many out there), to optimize the Core 2 Duo systems to run much faster."
"I trust this gives you guys all the information you need to be the best beta tester, potential Founder’s Program patron or simply a consumer of MechWarrior Online," he added.
To read the full update, head here.