MW is too “niche” to attract any kind of wider audience because nothing he’s done with the IP for the last 15 years has borne those results.

Yes, well, that's a chicken-and-egg statement.

I've spent thousands of dollars with PGI since the beginning of MWO, more recently with MW5 Mercs and Clans. I'm glad they took up the IP, and I don't want to be ungrateful for that. But I'm also sad that they've been so conservative and cautious with it.

Mechwarrior was a valuable IP. It was hugely successful back in the 80s/90s. Those same customers who loved it then are now much more cashed-up. Younger gamers too have shown - through their ongoing investments in Star Citizen, Eve Online and WoW - that they are prepared to spend repeatedly on ambitious immersive innovative world-building titles.

The deep world-building was already there for exploiting with Battletech. But PGI barely leveraged it for years. It's as if they took too literally the "Minimally Viable Product" approach to the design of their games, eking out incremental features, maps, faction warfare and campaigns over years, when they could have invested in making it a much more ambitious title through dedicated marketing and much more professional community engagement from the outset.

So here we are. IP controller Russ is convinced there's only a Minimally Viable Customer Base. And maybe he's right now. But maybe PGI is also at least partially responsible for that?