Gamespot wrote:Microsoft has confirmed with GameSpot that it has shut down its internal developer FASA Studio. The news first surfaced last night on the official forums for Shadowrun, the shop's PC and Xbox 360 shooter.
"It is my sad duty to announce that FASA Studio has officially closed its doors," wrote FASA studio head Mitch Gitelman in a post. "Today was the official last day of employment for those of us who had not moved on to other positions within Microsoft Game Studios. While the rumors have been circulating forever, we chose to wait on an official announcement because we didn't want people's attention distracted from our last product, Shadowrun, a game we love."
Later, Microsoft reps gave further details on the closure. "Microsoft has redeployed more than half of the FASA employees throughout the Microsoft Game Studios division, strengthening MGS as a whole with their specialized talent developing a cross-platform game and overall experience as veteran world-class game developers," a rep said. "We are very proud of what the FASA team accomplished with Shadowrun, and we will continue to support the title."
Though both FASA and Microsoft corporate PR continue to talk up Shadowrun, the game wasn't the monster hit both parties had hoped for. After receiving middling reviews, the 360 version of the game sold just under 150,000 copies in the US between its May 29 release and July 31, according to the NPD Group. And although one of Shadowrun's main selling points was cross-platform play, the PC edition sold barely over 12,000 copies during the same period.
One of the greatest criticisms of Shadowrun, an online-focused multiplayer shooter, was how far it strayed from its source material. Namely, the densely plotted cyberpunk role-playing game Shadowrun, created by FASA Studio's former parent company, the famed pen-and-paper RPG company FASA Corporation. Founded in 1980, FASA Corp. created many classic franchises over the following two decades, three of which became video games: BattleTech, which inspired nearly two dozen MechWarrior and MechAssault games; Crimson Skies, the subject of PC and Xbox airborne shooters; and Shadowrun, which, prior to its most recent incarnation, inspired a Super Nintendo and Genesis game in the mid-1990s.
FASA Corp.'s game wing, FASA Interactive, was bought by Microsoft in 1999 and renamed FASA Studio. Stung by the decline of pen-and-paper RPGs, FASA Corp. closed down in 2001 and sold off its various properties. Microsoft retains the video game licenses for Crimson Skies, MechAssault, and Shadowrun, but hasn't revealed any future plans for the IPs. "We have no announcements at this time," a rep told GameSpot.
Goodbye huge chain of amazing universes and franchises. From the original awesome giant robot simulators, the best 1930s swashbuckling air piracy product ever made, and the only theme that has elves fighting cyborgs using chainsaws in the Matrix.
Oh. Thanks so much for giving those franchises a heavy dose of 'console-me-up'. Shadowrun? LOL, LETS MAKE IT A TERRIBLE SHOOTER. Mechwarrior? KEK, MECHASSAULT SIMPLICITY = BETTER'. Crimson skies? OMG, LET'S CLONE STARFOX WITH BIPLANES!'.
May some studio with actual talent and good decision making pick up these titles and give them proper sequels.
A studio *was* doing a MMO for ShadowRun, before M$ sued them for the rights.
I know, because a good friend was in charge of modeling.
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What happened to the Shadowrun property? Is it leased to Wizkids or it's bought totally by Wizkids and leased to Fanpro? I ask cause yesterday I tried to visit the official shadowrunrpg.com and I get shunted to another website. Fanpro is still selling the RPG on their website, though.
I think Wizkids may still have it. I found this link on their site: link. I remember seeing a few figures in a store back in 2004 or so, but nothing recent.
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Thag wrote:I think Wizkids may still have it. I found this link on their site: link. I remember seeing a few figures in a store back in 2004 or so, but nothing recent.
Yeah, Wizkids is still supporting the CCG and the "action figure game", but the 4th edition RPG's main website seems to have disappeared.
I guess this explains why http://mechcommander.org/ has gone down and I can't download Mechcommander onto my new computer.
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I remember playing FASA's Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game back in the mid 1980's at a local Con with the authors (Guy W. McLimore, Greg Poehlein and David Tepool), and even have an autographed copy of the first edition game around here somewhere.
Hearing that name brought back memories.
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Azazal wrote:Alas, Battletech was the first game I really got into. Farewell FASA, long live the mechs
Rumours of HAB operatives being involved in the destruction of this <strike>nest of mecha scum</strike> fine and noble RPG vendor are of course completely unfounded.
Shadowrun definitely was cool, I still have a copy of main rulebook and several of the sourcebooks, I for one will miss it. Earthdawn and Crimson Skies were kinda fun, though underdeveloped. BattleTech, not so much.
The failure to turn Shadowrun into a decent game was sad, particularly given that the SNES and Megadrive games were pretty good. Too much management pressure and 'make it like what everyone else is doing' I suppose.
I remember thinking the game was super-cool after a friend introduced me to it, way back in junior high. I even designed some mechs myself-- mediocre mechs, but mechs nonetheless.
A pity FASA's gone and 'Mechwarrior' is stuck with fuglies from 'The Dark Age'. Oh well. I still have 'The Big O' to fall back on.
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
I may be wrong but I was under the impression that FASA Studio was only the former subsidary FASA Interactive which Microsoft acquired from the FASA Corporation in 1999. And FASA Corporation still exists in the same form it did since 2001 - as a holding managing its intellectual property.
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Sidewinder wrote:I remember thinking the game was super-cool after a friend introduced me to it, way back in junior high. I even designed some mechs myself-- mediocre mechs, but mechs nonetheless.
A pity FASA's gone and 'Mechwarrior' is stuck with fuglies from 'The Dark Age'. Oh well. I still have 'The Big O' to fall back on.
I never liked Battletech in general, but the Mechwarrior games themselves were a fucking blast. My favorite of which was MW4. I had been holding out the small glimer of hope for years that one day, FASA might give us another PC Mechwarrior instead of the shitacular Mechassault. Doesn't look like it's going to happen now.
BattleTech was a fun beer-and-pretzels wargame. Rather absurd if you tried to think about the science of it, but the descriptions we used of 80-ton humanoid mecha bouncing around the battlefield were always good for a laugh.
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