Shadowrun Finds a New Home 72
After the disastrous Xbox Shadowrun title and the closing of FASA Studios, it's not surprising to see Microsoft pushing the rights to videogames made in the Shadowrun IP off to greener pastures. Their new place of residence, though, is a bit of a pleasant shock: a new company founded by Jordan 'Zapper' Weisman. Gamasutra reports: "FASA, WizKids and 42 Entertainment founder Jordan Weisman has announced, via the website of his newest venture-backed startup Smith & Tinker, that he has licensed the 'electronic entertainment' rights to his MechWarrior, Shadowrun and Crimson Skies properties back from Microsoft ... It is unclear as of yet what form Weisman's plans for these franchises might take. But given the transmedia nature of his recent ventures, and job advertisements asking for experts with Web 2.0 and online game expertise, online world/MMO elements to the company's projects seem likely." Simon Carless has a few extra comments on the news over at GameSetWatch.
Thank God (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A New Mech Warrior or Shadowrun MMO? (Score:3, Interesting)
Shadowrun WoW (Score:4, Interesting)
The big problem that I see is generating a credible world. WoW works because it is a fantasy world and so they can have these huge open spaces and towns that are comprised of a couple of buildings. Shadowrun on the other hand is all about the urban sprawl and dense urban environments. I could be wrong but I don't think that there is game engine out there that can handle all of the NPCs, plus a bunch of players, plus all of the various vehicles operating both on the street and in the air. The WoW model when you are dead and running back to your corpse could be expanded upon to create the seperation between the astral space and the physical world.
What do you guys think? Can a model be created using the current hardware that could accurate recreate an urban game world that would be required for Shadowrun?
Re:A New Mech Warrior or Shadowrun MMO? (Score:3, Interesting)
Easy Money (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Shadowrun WoW (Score:3, Interesting)
Whatever system they come up with would have to take cover, etc into account. As much as I hate to say it, it would necessarily have to have elements of a FPS.
I don't really see your point about generating a credible world, what makes WoW any more or less credible than any other fictional setting? City of Heroes is in an urban setting and it seemed to handle numerous NPC, vehicles and all sorts of PCs running around just fine. Zoning makes a lot of that easier, and in that sense Shadowrun would probably operate like 99% of all the other MMOs out there right now. I don't think body runs would necessarily work that well, waking up in a hospital (or DocWagon as the case may be) seems much more likely.
Did the Shadowrun game actually fail because...? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:A New Mech Warrior or Shadowrun MMO? (Score:3, Interesting)