FASA Studio, responsible for MS's first cross-platform shooter Shadowrun, has officially closed for business.
A statment was released to the Shadowrun community from studio manager Mitch Gitelman:
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.
As much as I liked shadowrun the lack of support form FASA regardless of what they say, showed they were doomed to all split up. More maps would have been nice but as it stands "title updates" will have to do. I fear I will be trading this one in soon.
Well all i can say is its sad to hear about the people behind the games losing jobs especially as a direct result of their first and only game flop. That really surprises me though as usually a studio lasts more than one game, and its surprising M$ didnt bail them out
Sucks for people who bought the game though as I guess that means there's gonna no downloadable maps. Kinda crazy that they worked on the game for so long and it only released with a handful of maps. Wouldn't have mattered so much if there was single player, but you can't release a multiplayer only game with so few maps and expect people to buy it.
the minute I saw this game I knew it was gonna be bad, the design of the characters is soooo poor that a 5 years old with a box of crayons could do better & the games concept was utter tripe. This was a massive waste of an opportunity to really kick off the XBOX LIVE Windows Vista cross over, why didn't they just wait till they had an amazing online game???, now every1's gonna have burnt fingers from buying this pile of sh1t.... shame.
I think the problem with FASA Studios wasn't only that their game was over-priced with barely any game content, but the fact that they didn't seem to realize that this was a problem.
It probably didn't help that the fella behind the game even had the balls to come out and attack the gaming press for pointing out the serious shortcomings with his game.
Full price with no campaign didn't sit right with me at all... shame really cos I did like the feel from the time I spent on the demo and it could've made for a very entertaining 2 player co-op experience.
I rented Shadowrun and I have to say it was just an average FPS. No real single-player left it as a multi-player title only and I wasn't willing to shell out Ł40 for it. The fact that they have closed down reflects MS disappointment in them as they obviously put alot of faith in them to push cross-platform gaming.
The game also completely failed to do the Shadowrun IP justice. It needs a big RPG or even MMORPG, not some little team-based FPS.
Agreed. And that's something we'll never see either. There was a company, 6th World Games I believe, that were making a Shadowrun MMO, and wanted M$ to publish it, but instead they slapped a cease a desist order on them. I think that was our last, best hope of seeing a decent Shadowrun game with the IP still in tact (unlike this abortion).
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