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FASA Studios Now Out of Business
PhoenixOne writes "Another chapter in the long and sometimes-frustrating history of the name 'FASA' comes to a close today, as Microsoft's FASA Studio has closed its doors. 'It is my sad duty to announce that FASA Studio has officially closed its doors. 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.'"
Someone has.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
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.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
The incarnation of FASA that just died didn't even own the rights to Battletech, Mechwarrior, or Shadowrun (or Crimson Skies for that matter). Jordan Weisman kept the rights when he sold FASA Interactive to Microsoft, and when he founded WizKids they ended up with ownership. The properties were leased to FASA Studios and FanPro. All in all, this is probably a good thing. As long as WK can be convinced there's a market for Mechwarrior and Shadowrun video games, they'd most likely be very willing to find a new company to lease the rights to.