Has anyone done any fan sourcebooks concerning RL corps in the 2070s?

In my campaign, Google is now a Subsidiary of Horizon, doing Funky AR stuff for free in exchange for targeted Horizon Ads (Google Earth has Live feeds now )

Anyone else have any idea on what corps of today actually survived to 2070, let alone what they're like now?

Muskie

Some of them are actual Canon entities. Federated Boeing for example is basicly the good old lazy B. Others are referenced as being parts of the Megas, Corporate Shadowfiles and Corporate Download both contain information. Smaller companies can probably be safely incorporated however you need for your game. Again corporated Download and Corporate Shadowfiles reference what sectors each of the Megas have their strengths in. For examle Aztechnology is the leader in foodstuffs, they own the Stuffer Shack chain and numerous food companies. In all likelihood they probably own a chain of more upscale supermarkets, though that is not Canon (because how many Shadowrunners shop at the local market and have time to make a home cooked meal?) you could insert your favorite chain (Kroeger, Whole Foods, Albertsons, Safeway, etc.) in that role as a subsidiary. Of course there are lots of smaller local, regional, national, and international non extraterritorial companies out there too, and these small guys can make interesting players in your world.

AZT is supposed to own Carrefour's (a supermarket conglomerate over in the EU and in China). Now that I've finally got an in-person group to run, I'm having them own Wal-Mart. Ares owns Kroger.

The players are, well, having fun with this

funny
Most professional criminals DO have time to cook for themselves

Microsoft renamed itself Microdeck following the first Matrix crash, and became a peripheral company, though I wouldn't be surprised if that was about to change. Afterall, MS invented the tactics the megacorps use today. I think it's time for them to show them that the original is still the best.

Sure, it'll never be a AAA, but it could quite possibly become a AA.

In an incomming game where the runers travel unto the 'Green Southern Lands', I am thinking about including local corporations as A, maybe some AA. Like that infamous Globo, the brazilian version of Fox.

If I remember well, Embraer, the local big planes makers who clashed with our Bombardier still exist as a part of Aztechnologies and had to move out (A guy on a Toronto Shadows setting website used Bombardier and another also of our local jewels, thought i don't know if it's canon).

Thank you for the info, man. I will look at this.

BTW, are they as controversial in the future as it is now?

A bunch of today's corps around in some form or another...look at some of the equipment and vehicle names. I expect most of the ones that still have a 'presence' have been folded into one mega's portfolio or another though. I remember Microdek being mentioned (IIRC Gates III was in charge). Wasn't Apple mentioned in the CalFree sourcebook?

Yes. It's owned by Ares.

Since we speak of it...

Anyone know the fates in Shadowrun of the grand ol' videogames corporations - Nintendo, Sony, Sega, the holder of Atari's things? I have the idea of a run around 'electronical archeology' of Pre-Crash codding and games in the future (maybe linked to the Amazonia one). Any official hints?

Yeah, albeit I was thinking about some weirdo futuristic tech geek and mad collectionor. ^^ But all good.

Infogrames is sort of mid-sized in the scheme of game publishing companies and is itself in big financial trouble lately. The big players in gaming right now are Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Electronic Arts. Sega lost a lot of ground but still makes games and is now owned by Sega Sammy Holdings, a company that brought together Sega's assets with a Japanese pachinko parlor company.

By 2070, I imagine most of the original gaming assets have been bought and absorbed into newer companies (much like Atari was bought by Infogrames). We do know that Microsoft still sorta exists as MicroDeck, but they are a much paler version of the old MS and likely don't do a whole lot in the gaming business anymore. Sony still exists too and likely still controls its gaming assets.

In my games, I had Sega taken over by MCT and now used primarily as a front for electronic gambling (especially Yakuza-run operations in Japan). I had Nintendo bought out by a young Inazo Aneki in his early acquisition days and it still remains part of Renraku and part of the gaming biz. I haven't given much thought to EA's fate before now, but they make a great candidate for absorption into Horizon.

I think Blizzard must be mentioned... i don't know what their profit is, but with literally millions of gamers paying a monthly fee, the turnover must be really big, especially compared to other computer gaming companies.

Blizzard is a studio and doesn't do its own publishing. Vivendi Universal Games publishes Blizzard's games, and they are a mid-sized publisher based in Los Angeles, which itself is a 99%-owned subsidiary in the big France-based Vivendi Universal S.A. conglomerate. The success of World of Warcraft made Vivendi pretty much the only gaming publisher to post a profit this year, but it's still small compared to the other companies I posted.

What becomes of Vivendi in SR is anyone's guess. Possibly Lofwyr snatched them up, maybe they formed a foundation of what is now Hermes Eurocom, or maybe they just fell apart in the Crash. As for Blizzard, it's equally fuzzy. Developer/Publisher relationships can change; there's no saying Vivendi will still be publishing Blizzard's games five years from now, no less decades in the future.

I stand corrected.

I doubt they will go down before the first Matrix crash .

And actually, I have to correct myself here.

Blizzard isn't just having its games published by Vivendi, it's actually a subsidiary of Vivendi. So the developer/publisher relationship won't change unless Vivendi sells them.

French Company Vivendi, perhaps in the holdings of a certain France based brother and rival of Lofwyr.........

Fox is very big and influencal also, and known (infamous) for it's decidedly rightist, neocon bias. I remember hearing similar vibes from Globo, who blasted Lula. But you know more than me on that...

Ares Global Entertainment, the third most important AAA holdings in the media sector (after Horizon and MCT), is headquartered in Paris, France. The place probably weights a little bit more in the videogame industry than in the TV/Trid, music (and simsense I guess). I can perfectly imagine Ares marketing "the only Knight Errant-sanctionned FPS".

Also, the three major channels in SR are CBC, NBS and ABS (got the pattern ?), respectively owned by MCT, Ares and S-K. IRL, NBC entered a partnership with Vivendi to refund the TV/movie branch, taking a 20% stake.

IIRC , as of SoE, Sony is owned by SK. I know they purchased Siemens too.

Some of the big players are still around, but not mentioned.
Like that nice little Sony logo on the cyber-wrist gyromount Nice to see that Sony is still dabbling with multiple technologies.
I can imagine that companies like Mitsumi and Toshiba are either their own megas or were bought up by outfits like Renraku, Mitsuhama and whatnot.

[edit]
Or did I miss Sony somewhere... need to find what I did with my copy of Corporate Download...

I was thinking of a listing in SoE, and double checked it, and your right as far as I can tell. It was probably Phillips (pg 24) I was thinking of. Thanks DE, wouldn't want to lead anyone astray. I'll double check because I had though there was a reference somewhere, but for now , it wasn't the one I was thinking of at least.

Also I can't remember which of the Japanacorps it was, but I do recall one of them being described as having grown out of Matsushita Electric, who you may better know as Panasonic.

I looked it up in SoA last night when I got home to see if I was talking out my ass. I was. Apparently Sony is alive and well and independent, and even has a biotech division.

Seriously though, thanks for checking up on me. That's why I make sure to say "IIRC". Hate to lead people astray. Nice work BTW Nath. I especially liked the shadowtalk bits in those sections.

In my own campaign, M&M/Mars is still in existance, still independant, still trying to dominate in food-stuffs (going up against Aztechnology). Oh, and any employees who leave Mars for Aztechnology, funny thing - there seems to be a hit contracted on those employees not long afterwards.

(I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "Emporarors (sp) of Chocolate" is a must-read for Shadowrun GMs.)

Cadbury's should also survive, being as they were the first company to build and run a town for their employees back in the 1800's. Though they could be part of Proteus now. They started the ideas that lead to Arcologies, so it would make some sense.

Damn. Didn't think I'd get this many replies. thanks for the ideas.

you bastards, I am going to be the one sufferinf for your helpfulness

Hershey's did it as well, i dont know the dates tho

Ford also did, the old fogies in near the town where I grew up in Alabama still curse his name for backing out of a deal that would have had Muscle Shoals owned wholly by the Ford Car Company. The even have an official day about it. It's wierd, in the run up to the deal, the town spent a huge amount of money making the place ready (in the hopes of sealign the deal I'd imagine. There are old cotton fields with sidewalks running into them for no apparant reason and things like that.

Same in East Germany
After 1990 so much money flew into the new federal states that they didn't know what do with it. Huge industrial parks had been built, even if there was not a single company willing to settle there. Small villages got their own huge indoor pools etc pp.
It would be funny, if we don't have to pay for maintenance now and if not all states in east germany (west as well) are collapsing sooner or later due to financial problems.

I always thought Mitsuhama began with a Mitsubishi-Yamaha merger..