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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.'"
Microsoft and FASA have destroyed both the Mechwarrior and Shadowrun franchises now. Glad to see FASA go before they could strike again. Now if only there was some way to get those licenses away from Microsoft and give them to someone who would actual create a good game rather than the button-masher of the week.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Someone has.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Still the only RPG I've played where I spent 5 hours creating the character and 5 minutes getting him killed.
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 TRUE Fasa died years ago. This is just a game studio that ripped off its name.
Give the Mechwarrior franchise back to the remnants of Microprose, who can give us a fabulous Mech game, like Mechwarrior 3. Mechwarrior 3 was nearly perfect. Mechwarrior 4 was too "Arcade-like"... and Mechassault is just a console shoot 'em up with Mechs.
Also, give Shadowrun to Bioware, so that we can have an awesome Shadowrun RPG. I couldn't even BEGIN to think of how wonderful a game Bioware could make with Shadowrun.
...hates how Microsoft buys companies and then destroys half their product lines?
It's not just FASA, I don't really know much about them. The one that really pissed me off was Access Software, which MS bought for the fricking golf game, incidentally destroying the Tex Murphy franchise.
I understand, and am resigned to, Microsoft buying and/or destroying competitors. What really pisses me off is when they decide to purchase and then sit on intellectual property, like I am sure they are about to do with FASA's licenses, simply because they think it won't make them high enough profits but are too fucking lazy to sell it, despite the fact it has nothing to do with any of their core business.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
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.