http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3162776

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:

"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.

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.

The recent history of Shadowrun.

1. MS buys FASA Studios.

2. MS buys Shadowrun license.

3. FASA Studios to make a new Shadowrun game.

4. FASA and MS for some reason decide to make it a multiplayer shooter instead of a sequel in the same genre (especially since 360 needs RPGs way more than FPS games)

5. Fans of Shadowrun pissed off about the change of direction.

6. Problems in FASA between members.

7. Game gets largely negative reviews, missing the high expectations.

8. FASA studio falls apart.

I'm sorry but they got what they deserved. They took an awesome IP from the SNES days and killed it. I wouldn't mind seeing a cyberpunk action RPG ala the original Shadowrun but sadly this game will assure that that will never happen.

would be interesting to compile the performance of all the studios that MS played a part in and see which of them actually started performing better.

from what i've read... none.

"would be interesting to compile the performance of all the studios that MS played a part in and see which of them actually started performing better.

from what i've read... none."

Then you should read more; haven't you heard of Bungie? They did well for themselves as independent developers on the Mac but were nothing near as successful with Marathon than with Halo.

I don't know if Ensemble Studio was always a MS studio or was bought by them but if the latter then they did quite well with the Age of Empire series on the PC.

I also have high hopes that Lionhead will do better as Peter Molyneux has great ideas and it will be easier for him to get them done with the financial backing of MS. So hopefully once Fable 2 comes out it will be another studio helped by being purchased by MS.

Beside these I draw a blank but there might be others or potential others (like Lionhead) that others might think of.

that's good to know... at least MS doesn't just destroy value of these studios. guess 1 giant hit is enough.

Damn I was hoping Microsoft would have gotten them to make either another Mechwarrior game or Crimson Skies sequel for the 360.