According to Mitch Gitelman, computer game developer FASA Studios has closed their doors. This has sparked a lot of posts around the net saying that “FASA has closed,” or “Shadowrun is dead” or “BattleTech is dead” — and that’s created some confusion, because to traditional gamers, FASA [or, more fully, “FASA Corporation”] ceased operating as a publisher in 2001, but both games live on.

Regardless of the state of the BattleTech / MechWarrior & Shadowrun computer game licenses [FASA Studios was part of Microsoft, and Microsoft still holds the rights to computer games set in the BattleTech and Shadowrun universes], neither of those great properties is dead, and the closing of FASA Studios does not affect Catalyst Game Labs and our production schedule in any way.

As we’ve seen in the past, while individual companies and operations may fall down, Shadowrun and BattleTech are still going strong. We look forward to seeing what happens next to the digital versions of our beloved universes!

Randall Bills was interviewed at Gen Con Indy by the awesome guys at Sons of Kryos. He talks about the Classic BattleTech Introductory Box Set, MechWarrior Third Edition and the upcoming Revised Classic BattleTech RPG, plus winning a Gold and Silver ENnie this year. This episode also features an interview with Monte Cook of Malhavoc Press, and his experiences at Gen Con this year.

Download the MP3 here [21 Minutes, 9.6MB]