General News - FASA Studio Shuts Down

Dhruin

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Offtopic news really since FASA Studio didn't produce anything in our sphere of interest despite the old link to FASA proper. Anyway, if anyone was hoping they would do something better with Shadowrun than the recent action multiplayer title...
Dear Friends,
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.
As a testament to the team's commitment to Shadowrun, we released three title updates to improve the product even after the team learned we were losing our studio. We have kept our Community Manager and Technical Support Manager on the job to aid and support you and will continue to do so while people continue to play our game. I am pleased that about half of us have found great positions elsewhere in MGS and Microsoft where they can share their experience and passion with the great people there.
But now, as the last of us say our goodbyes to each other, I’m saying goodbye to you on behalf of a group of talented and dedicated professionals who busted their humps for the love of the game. I am proud to have worked with and represented them to you and know that wherever they go, they will continue to kick ass.
Mitch
Quoted from the Shadowrun forums. Thanks, Alrik.
More information.
 
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I am glad they shut down after ruining Shadowrun by making it an action game instead of (like it's predecessors and the pnp games) an RPG.

I haven't kept track of the game but I hope it failed miserably.
 
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I haven't heard of it either but from what I have read, apparently m$ had the brilliant idea of having this as a "games for windows" and shitsta only release , which would allow PC and console gamers to play deathmatch together.

They gave console versions a huge "hitbox" (area to hit, for scoring) and made the PC gamers mouse really sloppy so they couldn't aim.

So in consulsion, you should be able to guess how successful it was. :)
 
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Making it "vista only" was imho the decision that broke its neck, so to say.

But this is - as I assume - Microsoft's responsibility, not FASA's.

But anyway, I'm quite sad on losing such a long-lasting development studio (about 10 years, which is nothing small in this business) due to some decisions the big "mother company" made.
 
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I hadn't heard of this studio and it is sad, m$ has always been willing to destroy any company or government regualtions intended to protect the public, on their rise to power.

We had them convicted and guilty here in the US ready to break them up, then the 2000 election desaster and they were basicly allowed to walk.
Then the EU had them convicted and guilty but not sure how they turned out, I guess they got away again. :(
 
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I hadn't heard of this studio and it is sad, m$ has always been willing to destroy any company or government regualtions intended to protect the public, on their rise to power.

We had them convicted and guilty here in the US ready to break them up, then the 2000 election desaster and they were basicly allowed to walk. Then the EU had them convicted and guilty but not sure how they turned out, I guess they got away again. :(

No, they didn't. They have had to pay several big fines in the billion $ area, but to MS and Bill Gates who have a lot billions of $ this is really just a drop in the ocean.

Microsoft has been charged with and also been convicted of mis-using their dominant place in the market, to shove anyone else out of the market by the EEC-court (whose responsibility this falls under). There are still investigations going on against Microsoft the last time I checked. However, it is understandable that Microsoft doesn't want to publizise their soruce codes at his is like the secrets of the(ir) trade.

As for Shadowrun, I once had a peek at the shadowrun pen & paper website. And I have to admit that it looked really promising to me. Now, if I were a Shadowrun fan, I would be very :angry: at Microsoft etc. for allowing such a great feature to turn into an action game rather than a full fledged rpg. (which it clearly deserved, I think..)

I don't understand why everyone thinks that it is such a good idea to make action games out of rpgs lately, and poor action rpgs as well by the looks, sounds and feels of it.

/aries100
 
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Because action sells. 'Nuff said.
 
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But in this case, it didn't. ;) As far as I can see, the game made plenty of its own mistakes (no SP campaign, ridiculous price, Vista only) but there might be a potential lesson for those that take a loved franchise and take it in a totally new direction with nary a hint of what made the franchise great. Even as an action game, if this had some decent RPG elements, I feel it might have been received a little differently.
 
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The larger problem right now is MS and how they really dropped the ball here... again.

I was going to post why but this has editorial written all over it (and not the usual complaint about Bill & Co.). Ill start something in Off Topic instead.
 
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I can't stand FASA, critical failure has been waiting for their crew for a long time...
 
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Shadowrun was doomed from the get go for all the obvious reasons noted by Dhruin, but I think that the bad vibes also ruined it. It just wasnt right to do Shadowrun like that, I think karma took them down as well.

Someone fire up another ganesh cone.

The Vampire: Masquerade games may not be lovingly faithful reproductions of the PnP game, but they arent outright sacrelige as this Shadowrun thing was.
 
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Perhaps somone will pick up the licence and they finally make a new mechwarrior game for PC. I have the entire collection. Only the expansion of third sequel plus all fourth sequel games left to play. After that I need more. The mechassault thing they did for it in the xbox is more like a crime than an actual game.
 
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This is good news. Taking a pen and paper RPG like Shadowrun and turning it into Counterstrike was extremely stupid and an incredible insult. Hopefully, whoever was responsible for it lost his job in this shutdown and won't be holding a position of power again anytime soon.
 
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As for Shadowrun, I once had a peek at the shadowrun pen & paper website. And I have to admit that it looked really promising to me. Now, if I were a Shadowrun fan, I would be very :angry: at Microsoft etc. for allowing such a great feature to turn into an action game rather than a full fledged rpg. (which it clearly deserved, I think..)

I bought the Shadowrun p&p rulebook pretty much upon release. It was a very neat system, though I far preferred Cyberpunk as far as games using that setting went.
In Shadowrun, I found it to be a bit awkward and clumsy in it's rules, but the foundation and theme was solid.
A proper Shadowrun cRPG would be so welcomed, but considering that MS's Shadowrun game was a failure, I doubt we'll see another attempt. MS will just sit on the license to prevent anyone else from using it.

It's a shame that FASA is officially gone, but really, they've been gone for a long, long time, operating in name only as part of a larger body. What's more a shame is that Microsoft owns the rights to the FASA titles. I've so long wanted a proper turn-based computer version of Battletech. Not Mechwarrior, not the real-time games, but turn-based thorough adaptation of the Battletech rules.

Microsoft will never release anything that does proper justice to titles like Battletech and Shadowrun.
 
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I've so long wanted a proper turn-based computer version of Battletech. Not Mechwarrior, not the real-time games, but turn-based thorough adaptation of the Battletech rules.

The original battletech pc games done with todays standards would be awesome but I dare not even hope for somthing like that. Id be happy even for yet another mechwarrior.

If you like turn based "mechs" i sure hope you have played this:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/missionforce-cyberstorm
 
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I have not played that Cyberstorm game, nor even heard of it.

But I don't even need a Battletech game by "today's" standards (if it were done, I wouldn't be able to run it anyways!) but just a good, solid turn-based Battletech game with decent graphics and an intuitive interface.

I've got that game in my list of games-I-want-but-will-never-see.
 
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I have not played that Cyberstorm game, nor even heard of it.

Well I dare you to give it a try. Its among the best (and very few) turn based mech-type games ever made for pc.

But I don't even need a Battletech game by "today's" standards (if it were done, I wouldn't be able to run it anyways!) but just a good, solid turn-based Battletech game with decent graphics and an intuitive interface.

The last battletech game was made like 20 years ago so "today's standards" would be anything better than 320x200 resolution with 16 colors. ;)

If you dont care about graphics you should try the old battletech games or the new free megamek thing that som seem to like. If you want lil bit more graphics thers also titans of steel: http://www.matrixgames.com/games/game.asp?gid=237

They are all turn-based allthough imho cyberstorm is the best. The two battletech games would be better but their graphics pretty much ruin it.
 
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Well I dare you to give it a try. Its among the best (and very few) turn based mech-type games ever made for pc.

I will endeavour to keep an eye out for this one then.

The last battletech game was made like 20 years ago so "today's standards" would be anything better than 320x200 resolution with 16 colors. ;)

If you dont care about graphics you should try the old battletech games or the new free megamek thing that som seem to like. If you want lil bit more graphics thers also titans of steel: http://www.matrixgames.com/games/game.asp?gid=237

The old Battletech games, the Crescent Hawk's Inception and Revenge were great (Inception more so than Revenge). They were great favourites of mine on my C64, and at the time the graphics were, to me, spectacular!
That Titans Of Steel looks promising and somewhat familiar. I may have tried a demo for it once, I'll take another look at it.
That Megamek looks like straight-up tabletop Battletech, but I'm not keen on the MP-only aspect. Still, worth a look. Thanks!

In regards to graphics, I'm no graphics whore, but I do like some style and substance. The Mech Commander games (I think those are the ones, the RTS versions) looked great, something with that degree of graphics development but in turn-based format on a hex grid is what I'd really, really like.
Megamek is decidedly low-tech in appearance, looking like the tabletop game with cardboard mech chits rather than the lead miniatures.. Speaking of which, Battletech would be a great candidate for the Tin Soldiers treatment!
 
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