The giant fighting robot game MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries was supposed to arrive in December, but developer Piranha Games announced today that in order to ensure it's "the best single-player Mechwarrior experience to date," it will be held back until sometime in 2019.

"As everyone knows, this is the first single-player experience Mechwarrior title released since 2002 and we are well aware of the responsibility and great opportunity we have in re-introducing Mechwarrior to the world," Piranha boss Russ Bullock said in a statement.

"At this time we're only prepared to announce a slip into 2019 and would like to give ourselves until MechCon this December 1 in Vancouver to determine and announce the specific launch date in 2019 so that we can be as accurate with our estimations as possible and avoid further delays. Although undoubtedly many Mechwarrior fans will initially be disappointed by the longer wait, we also feel confident and assured that we will get 100 percent support from Mechwarrior fans to release the best product possible."

Important message regarding MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries pic.twitter.com/HKlTSu1EWzJune 18, 2018

I'm not all that certain that "everyone knows" that this will be the first single-player Mechwarrior to come along in more than 15 years, but I personally know that I haven't played one since Mechwarrior 2, and that came out more than 20 years ago. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), I have very much been looking forward to MechWarrior 5, and if I have to wait another year or so for it to be as good as Mechwarrior 2 (which, by the way, was spectacularly good), I'm okay with that.

We got some hands-on time with MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries last year, and even in that early state it looked very promising. More information about the game can be had at mw5mercs.com.