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.'"

Good riddance.

[Danse]

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.

Re:Bugger!

[Danse]

You know, if the company goes out of business that doesn't mean the game isn't playable...

No, but it really wasn't worth playing to begin with. It had fuck all to do with Shadowrun and simply ensured that we won't get a real Shadowrun game anytime soon. It's like they chose to slap that name on just to fuck over the SR fans. There really isn't any other reason for it when they could have shipped the same game with any other name and it would have made no difference.

I remember when FASA and I were friends

[WillAffleckUW]

back when I wrote SF and Fantasy gaming articles in the 80s.

Regardless of what happened since then, it's sad to see them go.

Re:Good riddance.

[nutshell42]

They seemed completely unable to release a game that wasn't part of the genre du jour.

Mechwarrior was a mech simulation at heart. But haven't you read the news? Simulations are dead, so let's do... a RTS! But wait, now FPS are the best-selling titles and we're busy losing $4bn on our console anyway so let's drop the PC...

Chromehounds sold well despite having some big flaws (just look at the reviews) and despite being part of a "dead" genre. This shows that there would have been a niche for a well made "realistic" mech simulation, even if it didn't sell as many units as Halo 2. And one of the major flaws of the original Xbox was a distinct lack of good games that weren't fps or by EA Sports.

If MS FS hadn't such a long tradition at MS, I swear FSX would have you shoot terrorists on the wings of your plane with an M-16; oh, but there would be an airplane minigame where you have to press the triggers rythmically to take off and land.

Re:Good riddance.

[SuiteSisterMary]

Hell, I just wish that they'd made more games compatible with the Steel Batallion controller.

This isn't really FASA dying...

[Murrdox]

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.

Who here...

[DavidTC]

...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.