nowdays megacorps in shadowrun Options

[dragonpunk]

Here is an interesting question...
we know that BMW is the backbone of SK...but, what would you say that happened to the following real life corps?

Microsoft
Sony
GM
GE
Teva
Time Warner
Coca-cola
Disney
McDonald's
Ikea
Starbucks
IBM

remember that those corps are huge and not only include their "core" company's but much much more...

So...any idea's people?
Which one of those still exist?
Which one of them is a part of what megacorp? which one stand own it's own right?
Do they still use their own name or are they fully integrated?


Would love to read your opinions

[Trigger]

Well Time Warner and Disney are already united, so I can see them eventually going in under one name.

I can also see Starbucks growing to buy up McDonald's, as Starbucks is already doing most of everything better. They take care of their employees really well, they are growing almost faster than they can keep up with and they have expanded their stores to deal with more than just coffee, now doing hot breakfast foods that are cheap and made of actual food. I can see them expanding to become a sort of all encompassing quick food stop. I should know too, I work for them.

[Sir_Psycho]

Trigger is a starbucks plant to brainwash us into being slaves of starbucks!

Sony produces electronics still, including a cyberdeck. I imagine that the movie producing companies eg Time Warner may have been cut down by Simsense, maybe they couldn't adapt quick enough and were absorbed into certain Mega's.

Now, McDonalds has me wondering. We've heard about stuffer shack, but that's more like a 7-11, we don't really read anything about big fast food chains.

[Trigger]

[Sir_Psycho]

Actually, that makes me think (and derail yet another thread on dumpshock), if corps have extraterritoriality, do they have national anthems?

[Kagetenshi]

Microsoft becomes Microdeck and sucks just as much as ever, only now it's irrelevant. Sony belongs, probably, to MCT. GM is part of Ares. GE is split between Ares and Fuchi. Teva Sport Sandals dies, and no one likes to talk about the fact that they ever existed. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries still exists, though not as anything significant. Time Warner becomes UCAS Online. Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola are driven out of business by the far superior Aztecola. Disney is purchased by Aztechnology. McDonalds is purchased by Aztechnology. Ikea is driven out of business by competition from Aztechnology. Starbucks is purchased by Aztechnology. IBM dies in the crash and is purchased at fire-sale prices by what would later become Fuchi.

Some corporations have company songs. They are sung at every opportunity.

~J

[Demonseed Elite]

[Kyoto Kid]

...supposedly (according to SR2) Mc Donalds is now Mc Hugh's.

...I would think that Walmart is still out there (I have them)

...Stuffer Shack = 7 - 11, = Plaid Pantry, = Stop n Go = Handy Pantry, etc.

...I'm surprised that Ameriflot (American Airlines/AMR) doesn't exist in SR. They bought out TWA (which would have been the logical "parent" of TransGlobal).

[Thain]

Aren't Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola locked into a nasty brush war in Indonesisa? I seem to recall reading that in various places, including Street Magic, iirc.

[FlakJacket]

[fistandantilus4....]

you're right Flak. I made that same mistake once and looked it up. Sony is independent.

[Kagetenshi]

Wal*Mart is almost certainly dead, with its bones ground within the Aztechnology machine. If there's one company that cannot conceivably survive the Crash, Wal*Mart is probably it.

~J

[fistandantilus4....]

Hell, then bring the crash sooner.

Maybe Kong Wal-mart won't turn my stomach as much.

[Demonseed Elite]

Yeah, Shadowrun does have Kong-WalMart. I believe I made a reference to them in Runner Havens Hong Kong, but I know they originated in much earlier Shadowrun material.

[dragonpunk]

Mcdonald is not about hamburgers, it's about real estate...so I don't belive they were just bougt by the aztecs...any one got a refference?

[Kagetenshi]

How does being about real estate protect them from one of the eight corporations that constitute >50% of all economic activity on Earth?

~J

[dragonpunk]

it doesn't, but the way i got it the aztecs are not so big on real estate outside aztlan...(ofcourse, I could just talk nonesense)

[Fix-it]

[FlakJacket]

Kind of, but it's actually in New Guinea. It's alluded to in the short fiction intro piece for the spirits section. The set-up is an ongoing cola war out there with both the opposing Red and Blue forces bringing in mercenaries, the Red force hiring a group from the CAS called the Minute Men. Not sure how canon I'd consider it to be but it got a smile out of me. :)

[Snow_Fox]

There's a reference in some of the earliest stuff ot EBM2- european Busines Machines and magic opperating out of their base in Switzerland

[Ed_209a]

[eidolon]

Excerpt:

[Demerzel]

An interesting note...

Knowns:
In SR Ares owns NASA...

At present NASA is developing a new launch system, the two rockets are called the Ares I and Ares IV (The number indicating the stages I believe).

Flight of fancy:
Now you have the birth of a Megacorp. GM takes over NASA takes the ARES rocket name, steeped in the mistique of the space program, and grows to the megacorp we read about in SR. Coincidence?

[Draug]

Perhaps someone at NASA plays Shadowrun. :P

[Nath]

Microsoft became Microdeck. They switch focus from software to hardware. So they abandonned Windows OS and go on selling their joysticks and keyboards...

Sony is still around, with several products showing up in the equipment lists (cyberdecks, porta and cybercam, GPS...). I included them in Shadows of Asia.

General Motors was the basis of Ares Macrotechnology. Ares divested it out in the 2030ies, and bought it back in the late 2050ies.

General Electric's fate is unknow. There is the "GE Vindicator minigun", but a line in Corporate Shadowfiles seems to immply GE is a thing of the past.

For Time Warner, the history went a different way in Shadowrun, with Turner Broadcasting and CNN becoming a part of Hisato-Turner Broadcasting (HTB), AOL evolving into UOL (UCAS Online), and Amalgamated Studio and Associated Artist controlling much of Hollywood (no recent news, but one or both may have joined Horizon since).

Coca-Cola was still in Atlanta according to the Neo-anarchist Guide to North America.

Disney is only referred to through its theme parks, as the Virtual World Disney company, which joined the Horizon Group.

Ikea. In Sprawl Survival Guide rules for custom livestyles, there is a reference to "S-Kea furnitures".

IBM last reference was in the NAGNA. IBM owned the Sears Tower when they were blown up. In NAN1, a decker also compare the Pueblo grid to Aztechnology and Renraku hosts in Seattle, as well as to a "Hyundai-IBM"'s in Armonk. For the record, Hyundai was taken over by Eastern Tiger Corporation.

Mc Donald's, Starbuck. No clue on my side.