FASA Studios is NO MORE!

1UP.com reports,"

FASA Studio Officially Shuts Down

Long-standing rumors finally confirmed.
By Philip Kollar, 09/12/2007
Some people may remember way back near the start of the year, rumors began raging that FASA Studio would be shut down some time after the release of Shadowrun. That has since come true, as FASA studio manager (and 1UP Yours guest alum) Mitch Gitelman confirmed the news on the official Shadowrun forums:

"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."

In possibly related news, gamers on those same official forums are alleging PC and Xbox 360 players can no longer play the game against each other, a feature that was one of the original major selling points of Shadowrun. It remains unclear if this is an unintentional glitch that will be fixed or the first step towards scaling down Shadowrun's servers. "

OK, these are the same developers who said that they were changing projects and that the massive layoffs were just a part of normal business. This is the same company that promised more maps for their Shadowrun title. This is the same company that was SO SURE that a Shadowrun FPS was such a good idea that they criticized reviewers who didn't agree with them.

I liked FASA, at least pre-Shadowrun. The game was like a death null. The title was ill conceived, ill advertised, and finally ill delivered. On the PC the advertising was buy Shadowrun and get Halo free. This certainly doesn't bode well. I think the developers should have listened to fans and made an RPG of Shadowrun or at the very least an Action title. Anything but ANOTHER FPS!