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No. FanPro has NOT been reprinting a lot of the old books. FanPro stopped being a going concern in BattleTech (or pretty much anything else) after they used FanPro USA as a piggy bank, then when the time came to renew the license, simply removed all the money from FanPro USA and closed up shop, leaving behind developers and other writers/authors who were owed sizable sums of cash.

Catalyst Game Labs are currently the people who have the license from Topps for BattleTech.

http://www.battletech.com/
http://www.catalystgamelabs.com/

There's been a LOT of new material out of CGL in the last several years.

They've only recently completed integrating the Jihad and Dark Age era stuff (that was imposed by Whiz Kids) into the timeline as a congruent whole (as opposed to a couple text blurbs and some very loosely connected novels).

They're just filling in some "cracks" here and there, and then we'll be looking at some completely new development.

Essentially, since the closure of FASA, there have been two main developers on the BattleTech line.

FASA/FanPro/Catalyst: Randall Bills
Catalyst (Current): Herbert Beas (Former assistant line developer)

Catalyst Game Labs are the people who hold the license for the board game right now, and are releasing the 25th anniversary box set something or other...

Microsoft's intention to "reboot" the MechWarrior franchise would be a good sign of future computer gaming to come, but there are two other issues: copyright and the intentions of the current owners.

The issue is that while the computer gaming rights were being traded around, the MechWarrior name itself was being traded around too. It is currently held by a company called WizKids which has granted full publication rights to Catalyst Game Labs, and is being rather proactive with it.

WizKids was nice enough with Catalyst and the printed game, but I have no idea how they negotiate the licensing of computer games, or how much creative control they're going to exercise over the finished product. Can anyone confirm if this is really a problem?

Wizkids own the board game (and I believe novel rights) but they do not own the rights for Battletech video games. That was owned by Microsoft and purchased by Smith & Tinker (founded by some guys from Fasa the original creators of the universe and the ones doing the reboot, not MS).

Though I know the game hit a snag for an entirely different legal reason. They used a Warhammer in that intro video last year and it is a design from Macross that they agreed to stop using many years ago. But that should be worked out sooner or later.

Microsoft's intention to "reboot" the MechWarrior franchise would be a good sign of future computer gaming to come, but there are two other issues: copyright and the intentions of the current owners.

The issue is that while the computer gaming rights were being traded around, the MechWarrior name itself was being traded around too. It is currently held by a company called WizKids which has granted full publication rights to Catalyst Game Labs, and is being rather proactive with it.

WizKids was nice enough with Catalyst and the printed game, but I have no idea how they negotiate the licensing of computer games, or how much creative control they're going to exercise over the finished product. Can anyone confirm if this is really a problem?

The current licensee is trying to renegotiate their terms with Topps after plunging into debt via some astonishingly poor management.

Catalyst has been in negotiations with some additional parties for weeks concerning how to pay down debts, including making partial payments, turning over stock and so on, as they’ve requested. We’ve been notified that some of these parties are pursuing additional legal means to secure the monies owed despite the negotiations. Our legal counsel has advised that the lawsuit is baseless. As such, Catalyst will defend against it and expect it to be dismissed in the near future. Regardless, we’re continuing our negotiations and will continue to move, as we’ve been doing, to pay debts down as quickly as possible.

Finally, as some of you may have noticed, we’ve just changed the legal text and logos on all our appropriate sites that reference Shadowrun and BattleTech from WizKids to The Topps Company, Inc., per their direction. We’ve been in contact with Topps for weeks regarding these situations. We are currently in negotiations to re-secure the Shadowrun and BattleTech licenses.

The current licensee is trying to renegotiate their terms with Topps after plunging into debt via some astonishingly poor management.

Catalyst has been in negotiations with some additional parties for weeks concerning how to pay down debts, including making partial payments, turning over stock and so on, as they’ve requested. We’ve been notified that some of these parties are pursuing additional legal means to secure the monies owed despite the negotiations. Our legal counsel has advised that the lawsuit is baseless. As such, Catalyst will defend against it and expect it to be dismissed in the near future. Regardless, we’re continuing our negotiations and will continue to move, as we’ve been doing, to pay debts down as quickly as possible.

Finally, as some of you may have noticed, we’ve just changed the legal text and logos on all our appropriate sites that reference Shadowrun and BattleTech from WizKids to The Topps Company, Inc., per their direction. We’ve been in contact with Topps for weeks regarding these situations. We are currently in negotiations to re-secure the Shadowrun and BattleTech licenses.

Other gaming companies are embracing the idea of open source and digital distribution, for example: Catalyst Game Labs. More importantly, their open source release of Eclipse Phase, and perhaps even unofficial support for the fan-made MegaMek/MekWars for their Battletech line.

Meanwhile companies like WizKids and Games Workshop continue to show their complete disdain for their customers and the fans of their products as well as their utter inability to properly market their games. Which is especially evidenced by the utter failure of WizKids' "Mech Clix" line for Battletech, and arguably evidenced by Games Workshops' constant price increases for Warhammer 40k; Catalyst seems to be going in completely the opposite direction - embracing digital distribution and open source in ways essentially unheard of in this day and age.

Mech is coming back - http://battletech.catalystgamelabs.com/ but like many others, I would like to see the good Star Wars games return, Jedi Knight, X-wing, Tie-Fighter, etc...

In honor of BattleTech's 25th anniversary, Smith & Tinker has authorized MekTek.net and MekTek Studios to distribute MechWarrior 4 (along with its expansion packs) completely free.

That's as much as I can verify... but let's face it, everything but Vengeance is an expansion.

Nope, Catalyst Games Labs (who now have the rights for the Battletech game) have secured the rights for the Unseen again. The classic "Robotech" mechs are all available again in Battletech. http://catalystgamelabs.com/2009/06/24/catalyst-game-labs-brings-back-unseen/

FASA Interactive was a division of FASA Corporation which (along with perpetual rights to the creation of electronic BattleTech and Shadowrun properties) was sold to Microsoft in 1999. MS dissolved FASA Interactive (so that all IP rights would be directly owned by MS) and created FASA Studio which went on to create MechAssault, the Shadowrun FPS, etc. FASA Studio is what this /. article is talking about.

FASA Corporation went out of business in 2001 and sold most of their remaining IP (including BattleTech and Shadowrun RPG properties) to WizKids Games

WizKids currently licenses Shadowrun RPG development to Catalyst Game Labs. The official site is www.shadowrun4.com (at least for now -- www.shadowrunrpg.com and www.srrpg.com will most likely return at some point).

According to the Catalyst Games Website they are looking to acquire the Battletech rights from Wizkids http://www.catalystgamelabs.com/

FASA may be gone. FanPro may be gone. But BattleTech and Shadowrun live on.

All the primary developers for CBT and SR for the past 7-ish years are now at Catalyst Game Labs And, already, they've released around half a dozen new products in the last 4 months.

As Robotech Master pointed out, there's still MegaMek.

Heck, if you want a taste of old-school FASA Interactive, there's even an approved copy of the sub-rosa PC BattleTech that JUST became available (thanks to Virtual World and Microsoft).

If you're looking for fiction you have BattleCorps and, eventually, Holostreets.

That and the Classic BattleTech and Shadowrun communities have been alive and bustling for the better part of a decade now.