Multiplayer BattleTech 3025
Multiplayer BattleTech: 3025 was a PC MMORPG game that was developed during the same period of time as MechWarrior 4: Vengeance by Microsoft. It was released in a beta format in 2001 and suddenly removed from the net with little explanation on December 6th, 2001.
Multiplayer BattleTech: 3025 is the third online incarnation of the BattleTech series. The first, was Multiplayer BattleTech: EGA, available on the GEnie game service. Its successor was Multiplayer BattleTech: Solaris (Also known as MPBT: SVGA). In BattleTech fiction, Solaris is a gaming world, where MechWarriors compete for money and notoriety, and the honor of their houses and stables (units). After the developer, Kesmai Studios was purchased by Electronic Arts, the oft-cancelled MPBT: 3025 project was revived.
The game concept was fairly straightfoward. Connect to a MMOG-style server, pick a planet, and descend to the surface to fight a 4 vs 4 matchup with the enemy. As battles were won and lost, planets were won and lost, shifting the borders of the various factions in the Inner Sphere. Differing in many ways from MechWarrior 4, MPBT chose to utilise far more of the original BattleTech rules (in terms of damage, how weapons worked, and a variety of other details) than the MechWarrior series does.
Gameplay tended to be fast and furious, with brutal matches that left 'Mechs broken and smoking on the ground, often within 30 seconds of the initial engagement.
On November 7th, 2001 EA announced that the game was to be shut down. Information on the reasons for this is extremely scarce and difficult to find. Many theories surrounding the disappearance of MPBT:3025 exist. This includes the suggestion that due to some legal issues involving Electronic Arts and Microsoft the licensing for use of the BattleTech franchise was revoked, though this is only conjecture.
Other theories suggest that due to a number of loss making titles, EA chose to close as many of its non-profit making services as possible in order to reduce its bottom line. Analysis of market information, and EA's own press statements at the time seems to support this theory. But the true answer to why MPBT was cancelled now only exists in files within EA's corporate archive.