We didn’t have to wait long for the teaser trailer’s hinting to be confirmed; there’s a new MechWarrior in the works. It’s being developed by Piranha Games with FASA co-founder Jordan Weisman on board. So far the title is simply MechWarrior and the game is being developed for the PC and Xbox 360, though fans of the franchise will be happy to hear that they’re definitely going for the battle simulation feel of the originals.

The game will feature intelligence warfare prominently with players getting access to unmanned drones for recon and communication purposes. In the non-xbox games every mech had its purpose and a skilled light mech pilot could defeat larger, more heavily armed opponents. Unfortunately in MechAssault there was a huge balancing issue. No matter how swiftly you ran in the lighter mechs eventually a single shot or two would land and blow you to smithereens. They’re looking to fix that by adding in experience points that you accumulate by piloting specific classes of mechs. The more time you pilot one class the greater your abilities with that type will become.

Whether they transform into cars, jets, or simply bring incredible amounts of firepower to bear on anything in their path gamers have a long love affair with giant robots. The sheer number of games involving mechanized engines of destruction is daunting, in many ways making up its own sub-genre whose titles range from ancient titles in the dim origins of gaming to modern titles brimming over with special effects.

The undisputed king of the giant robots though has always been the now-defunct FASA’s Mechwarrior series, known for its customization and strategy as much as for its action. The last two titles in the franchise have both been Xbox releases which were met with less than open arms by the majority of Mechwarrior fans.

Since then the studios behind them have been closed by Microsoft, but there is light at the end of the tunnel for fans of the IP, because in 2007 FASA founder Jordan Weisman bought the rights to his company’s old games and now word is beginning to slip that we might be looking at the revival of the franchise. Piranha game’s website lists that they are working on a AAA licensed franchise for the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360, while Voodoo Extreme has a nine second clip posted that shows a single leg of a gigantic machine.