MechWarrior, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies rights licensed by FAS

[Wetback]

(old news to some but I missed it the first time around...)


MechWarrior, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies rights licensed by FASA Founder
By Frank Caron | Published: December 07, 2007 - 11:19AM

Jordan Weisman, founder of the late FASA Studios, the great WizKids, and 42 Entertainment, has sent word that he has started a new venture called "Smith & Tinker," and has licensed the rights to popular properties MechWarrior, Shadowrun, and Crimson Skies from Microsoft.

While Weisman's plans with the properties are unclear, he has done some significant work within the increasingly prominent field Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). Moreover, his new venture will apparently "develop transmedia connected toys and entertainment." Given Weisman's entrepreneurial background, which ranges from game development studios to toy makers, it's even hard to speculate about what he's planning.

The company's website offers the only real clues, promising to reinvent play "for the connected generation" and foretelling of a chilling "future in which unconnected products like toys, games, books and movies will not be able to compete with the dynamic and exciting world of the internet."

We'll be keeping our ear to the ground for whatever Weisman manages to cook up, but between the visual styling of the page and his grand schemes, Weisman looks to be up to some sort of Andrew Ryan-like madness

[npsbre]

Lone Starr: But, Yogurt, what is this place? What is that you do here?
...
Yogurt: Merchandising.

[Pepsi-Wolf]

i'd buy mechwarrior toys...

but not darkage.

[Wetback]

i'd buy mechwarrior toys...

but not darkage.

I have bought Battletech toys.... but not darkage.

Ok, someone did give me a couple of darkage madcat toys... but I didn't BUY them!

[Cyril]

can someone explain in a few sentances what the "darkage" is and when does it occure?

[Wetback]

can someone explain in a few sentances what the "darkage" is and when does it occure?

DarkAge occurs after FASA Interactive (Battletech/Mechwarrior electronic gaming rights) were sold to Microsoft and when FASA's remaining assets were purchased by Jordan Weisman (AKA: WizKids) from bankruptcy court. By creating a new universe beyond the original FASA Battletech era, WizKids could now create and sell the rights for "DarkAge" games, electronic or otherwise, that would not be covered by any pre-existing licensing agreement.

This is exactly the same thing Dream Pod 9 did after selling the Heavy Gear computer gaming license to Activision. DP9 then created the Jovian Chronicles and other intellectual properties that were not covered by the existing Activision contract. Had they been able to find a company willing, we could have seen HG Jovian Chronicles electronic games published by a group other than Activision.

I know that does not answer your question... but it should!

-- Wetback

[Sir MMPD Radick]

Dark Age: Basically it is just a continuation of Battletech, after the so called 'Jihad' by the Word of Blake against most of the InnerSphere.
It occurs about 60 years from 3050.

The main difference is that for some reason there was a failure in the HPG network and now most of the Innersphere is only now recovering in the books.
A Comstar guy found how to fix it, as the knowledge was lost for how to repair the HPG networks.
Currently, he is under gaurd by the Word of Blake on Terra...

[Wetback]

http://www.amazon.com/Mechwarrior-Dark- ... 451459059/

Check out the "Look Inside" on Amazon.

[Cyril]

why is it called the dark age tho?

[npsbre]

Another aspect was the idea was that mechs would be much rarer and the tech level a lot lower, with industrial mechs having internal combustion engines being more common. So, it's called a "dark age" by losing technology, compared to the 3050/60s timeline, where technology was being recovered from Star League caches and the clans.

I think the game is now marketed as "MW:Age of Destruction" and not "MW:Dark Age," which is what it started out as. But it still seems to be casually referred to as "DA" from what I can see.