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Shadowrun dev closes doors News
PC
Xbox
Xbox 360
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by
Ellie Gibson
Shadowrun developer FASA Studio has officially shut down following months of rumours.
Released earlier this year, Shadowrun was the first cross-platform game for Xbox 360 and Windows Vista. FASA also developed Xbox titles Mech Assault and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge.
"It is my sad duty to announce that FASA Studio has officially closed its doors," said studio manager Mitch Gitelman, via the developer's community forums.
"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 rumours 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."
According to Gitelman the team knew the studio was to wind down operations, but continued to support Shadowrun with three updates before making the closure public.
"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," said Gitelman.
"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."
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GamesProgrammer
13/09/07 @ 08:41
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Not very impressive that the first Vista only game to be released and its developer went bust. Win XP and lower are still leading the way.
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quantumsheep
13/09/07 @ 08:43
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Met the founder of FASA a few years ago - he seemed like a genuinely nice guy who loved games.
This is a real bloody shame imo. And Svecke and tobi - hang your heads in shame, gentlemen. |
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Sad news: Like a lot of EG'ers I think Shadowrun's a great game that for some reason didn't click with the public and didn't get the audience it deserves. In contrast, you only need to play other mp fps's for a couple of minutes to appreciate just how good it is.
A belated plug: Shadowrun's the best multiplayer fps you can currently buy for the 360 (imo). By a long way. It's probably cheap now too, so BUY IT!!!! :-) |
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monkey_man
13/09/07 @ 08:47
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No publicity is bad publicity?
Shows what a touch-and-go industry it really is. |
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Laserbream
13/09/07 @ 08:51
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They lost my confidence when Mechwarrior 4 turned out to be an armored-suit game instead of a big-stompy-robot game. Good luck with the job hunting guys.
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I really enjoyed Shadowrun - I wasn't bothered by the lack of single player (as a busy parent i only have time for multiplayer these days) and I wasn't bothered by the number of maps.
Actually, Shadowrun gave me more pure FUN then any other game I can think of in the last 5 years. It's sad but this game will fade in to oblivion |
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Mr.Fahrenheit
13/09/07 @ 09:03
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Svecke, do us all a favour and let us know when you lose your job, that is assuming you're capable of getting one in the first place.
There will be a queue. |
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optimusprym8
13/09/07 @ 09:08
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just because half found jobs at MGS and the other half didn't doesn't mean that the other half are crap, maybe MGS didn't have enough positions open. If I had positions open I would welcome them with open arms since they are clearly talented and passionate about what they develop.
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@woodnotes
started typing a long, sensible, reasoned response to your last post - as someone that's worked in the industry and has been made redundant several times, as have many of my best and most talented friends. but I couldn't be arsed to finish it as I'm busy at work. instead: you're a f**king retarded virgin.
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most recently on 13/09/07 @ 10:21
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Madafunkola
13/09/07 @ 09:52
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I love the managers disregard for professionalism now the doors are closed.
Apparently "Busted their humps" and "Kicking Ass" are business terms, must put that in my next paper |
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"Fact is, if you're out of work, you're out of work for a reason and you only have yourself to blame. You must try harder."
Unbelievably cretinous comment. For the reasons Timpig gives. and it's not just the games industry it's relevant to. I have known people put years into a start-up only to see them unemployed - overnight because of management failings (in this case a shifty CFO). I suspect you've either not worked, or work in a nice secure job with no risk. (oh - and a big fuck off to anyone else who think people losing their jobs is in any way a good thing) |
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This is SAD!...
And a typical trend, I'm betting we're gonna see FASA resurface as a "nice" publishing house within Microsoft in some months. Here's to "independent" studios staying with us a big kick to the groin to MS for forcing them into the "VISTA ONLY" trap and loosing out on a LOT of sales :( |
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Right MS' fault... sure MS didnt keep them going for the past 5 years at all.
Wasnt the Vista Only thing to do with the Live Anywhere/PC-360 online support? Which is a nice idea if you ask me, no if anyone's to blame its the gamers for turning their noses up(infact they didnt have a million seller, as far as I know, for a long long time).
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most recently on 13/09/07 @ 11:21
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Mech Assault, Crimson Skies, and even Shadowrun were all so under appreciated even though they had such solid game play. Shadowrun is still my online shoot'em'up fun game of choice at the moment.
FASA, you will be missed. Edit: I believe FASA were bought by MS after Mech Warrior 2, they've not been independent since.
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most recently on 13/09/07 @ 11:18
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Triggerhappytel
13/09/07 @ 10:20
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Svecke, woodnotes and whoever else can fuck right off.
I'm glad you're so blasé about people losing their jobs, and so quick to point the finger of blame at the individuals. You idiotic, thoughtless pricks. In today's costly, risk-free industry, independant studios going out of business is never a good thing. |
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barnard666
13/09/07 @ 10:26
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Crimson Skies was amazing...I think the lack of a single player in shadow run was always going to be a bad idea...plus it didnt look very pretty...those were the two things that stopped me buying it anyway.
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The Bodybuilder
13/09/07 @ 10:32
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>" if you're out of work, you're out of work for a reason and you only have yourself to blame"
Which world are you living in and how much does it cost? |
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woodnotes: you are a still a student, aren't you? Your argument is tottaly devoid of reason whithin the society we live in.
on-topic: allways sad when a bunch of ppl is sacked, and I thought Shadowrun was doing well, it stood on Live most played games top for quite while.
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most recently on 13/09/07 @ 12:11
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FASA were originally a "traditional" role playing game company (e.g. pen and paper) - they went in to games (orginal Mechwarrior computer game anyone?). The PnP business went bust, and MS picked up the compuer department.
They were always going to disapear - although FASA did have a ton of great IP, they have just gone the way the rest of the "oldskool" pnp games developers with the rise of WoTC :/ For anyone who remembers - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASA Eathdawn still rocks :D |
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Whilst it's sad to see a developer fold I do find it hard to see why people find Shadowrun more entertaining than jabbing a rusty nail into their left eye.
For me the game as an amazingly bad half-finished Halflife 2 like mod that never deserved to see the light of day. To say its a robust multiplayer FPS is just plain wrong in my view. Consider the likes of Rainbow Six: Vegas and the like which are much more engrossing than the tree planting floating up ladder nonsence Shadowrun had. The less said about that abortion of a game the better! |
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smoothn00dle
13/09/07 @ 11:50
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My heart go out to FASA. They made great games. This is the first time I heard console second party developer close it door. This make M$ look bad.
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Mentalist(air)
13/09/07 @ 12:25
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I think this underlines precisely how stupid it was to turn one of the world's best-loved RPG franchises into a multiplayer-only action game.
Whilst I think Svecke et al are out of line, I don't hold with the instant sympathy and glowing epitaphs that some people need to spout when this sort of thing happens. FASA had a bad project and it tanked. Just like everybody predicted it would. In fact, I would guess that, since FASA was MS-owned anyway and there will have been no need for exchange of contracts and such, the half of the studio that aren't still in their employ were just sick of working there and wanted to move on. Either that or they're setting up an independent studio on their own, that often happens when something closes. I am a software developer, and I've been made redundant when a company has been on its way under, but I've been talented enough to get another job quickly. There's huge demand for development staff, if they don't get snapped up quickly, there probably is something wrong with them. |
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groovychainsaw
13/09/07 @ 12:51
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Well, they had some great brands which they failed to capitalise on - making shadowrun a FPS(?!!), on a console with a LOT of FPSs.... /sigh
Still, hope they manage to get work elsewhere, but someone in their management should be... fired? Not allowed to work in industry? |
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@Mentalist(air) : how do you know they wont be able to find jobs soon, they've just been sacked. On the other end, it's allways a pain (imo) to lose your job either you know you'll be able to find another soon or not. One thing is to leave because you want other is to leave because somebody else decided. You also said they probably deserved to "tank" because they had a bad project, but the decisions werent probably made by those.
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Why is whenever someone makes an FPS (ie. Shadowrun) everyone starts comparing it games like Counter Strike and Rainbow Six? FPS is a style of game, not a genre!
Shadowrun is just plain good solid fun, it's been excellently balanced and produces amazing team play even in quick match groups. Honestly those of you damning it go and give it a go, yes not including a single player game was a mistake but that hasn't affected how solid the multiplayer is. |
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groovychainsaw
13/09/07 @ 13:31
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I'm not saying shadowrun was bad, i really enjoyed the demo, but as im not keen on online shooters on the whole, was never gonna pay £40 for it. Maybe £15 ;-). But it was naive releasing it with not much marketing into the middle of summer. They could have released some awesome oblivion/deus ex cross (maybe something a bit like bioshock, but based on shadowrun IP) and done amazingly well, IMHO, but they didnt, they released a bog standard (one or two skills aside ....for the pedants) online shooter with only a limited number of levels and no single player...
(+ it is a lot like counterstrike, thats why it gets compared to counterstrike...)
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Mentalist(air)
13/09/07 @ 13:44
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how do you know they wont be able to find jobs soon, they've just been sacked
I said IF. They might all be brilliant prospective employees. They might be a shower of imbeciles, I don't know. You also said they probably deserved to "tank" because they had a bad project, but the decisions werent probably made by those. A good team will try their best to do something about bad ideas. Good games project management will react to feedback from the team. Unless you're railroaded by your publisher (and from my experience of working with them, Microsoft aren't that type of publisher), the responsibility for the end product is spread across the whole team. So, either Shadowrun's poor reception was their fault, or there were the sort of failures in management that would have pissed the team off so much that it would be best dissolved anyway. |
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OH NOES SHADOWRUN HAS A GUN BUYING SYSTEM IT MUST BE A COUNTER STRIKE CLONE
OH NOES IT HAS GUNS IT MUST BE A DOOM CLONE etc Sorry to hear the devs have closed their doors, it was good of them to stick with SR and it's a shame it never found the audience it deserved.
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most recently on 13/09/07 @ 16:56
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