Full Version: Shadowrun is moving to a new company
Moved my comments to the appropriate post.
Much of your answers are there. Highlights include:
Noone working on shadowrun now is going to leave, all the employees of FP will now work for IMR.
The reasons why aren't made public. I can't really extrapolate on rumors, but review that thread, there's also a great one at http://forums.classicbattletech.com/ though of course they aren't doing much talk specific to shadowrun, but there is a lot of general info about the changes.
Also there is a transcript of a live chat with a coupple answers to specific questions, as well as a coupple, "Sorry we can't answer that yet"s...
Noone working on shadowrun now is going to leave, all the employees of FP will now work for IMR.
The reasons why aren't made public. I can't really extrapolate on rumors, but review that thread, there's also a great one at http://forums.classicbattletech.com/ though of course they aren't doing much talk specific to shadowrun, but there is a lot of general info about the changes.
Also there is a transcript of a live chat with a coupple answers to specific questions, as well as a coupple, "Sorry we can't answer that yet"s...
One thing that can be cleared up: the license changeover did not happen because of SR4 doing poorly. In fact, SR4 did very well. But a successful product isn't the only factor.
And yes, from all I've been told, this will be very good for the franchise. I'm looking forward to it. The devs I work with will not be changing (Rob, Peter, and Robyn), but the structure of the new company will make things much, much better for us. Remember, Rob didn't lose a franchise, he's going right on over to IMR.
And yes, from all I've been told, this will be very good for the franchise. I'm looking forward to it. The devs I work with will not be changing (Rob, Peter, and Robyn), but the structure of the new company will make things much, much better for us. Remember, Rob didn't lose a franchise, he's going right on over to IMR.
Overall I think its going to be a positive move. I kinda felt like some things got kicked around when Topps bought WizKids, and thus on down the line.
| QUOTE (Demonseed Elite) |
| One thing that can be cleared up: the license changeover did not happen because of SR4 doing poorly. In fact, SR4 did very well. But a successful product isn't the only factor. |
Your right, money isn't the only factor, management is a big deal. I find it unbelivable that SR4 is "doing well". If it was doing well I could have gone to my local gaming store in San Diego California and bought a copy of SR4. Instead of being told for almost 5 months that is was "out of print"
So either it is doing well and is being mismanaged, or it isn't doing well. Either one would get the license yanked. And of course any official word is going to be bright and sunny since no one ever says the truth in business. My only hope is that the new company will not lead SR into further destruction.
Either way it spells bad news for us, since all sourcebooks will be put on hold for the forseable future.
| QUOTE |
| If it was doing well I could have gone to my local gaming store in San Diego California and bought a copy of SR4. Instead of being told for almost 5 months that is was "out of print" |
This is outside my area of expertise, but as far as I know, SR4 is not out of print. I would think that term would mean it's not being printed anymore, which is certainly false. It could be out of stock, though, because it has gone through a few full print runs already and exhausted the stock of those runs.
But Adam would know those details better than I would.
| QUOTE |
| So either it is doing well and is being mismanaged, or it isn't doing well. |
"Mismanaged" is a loaded word. Keep in mind that the management of FanPro US was Rob and only Rob. He was the only full time employee for Shadowrun (alongside the one full time employee for Battletech). He ran the operations, oversaw the line, went to the conventions, etc. That's a lot of hats to be wearing for one employee.
IMR brings in a bigger staff so that Rob doesn't have to handle everything himself anymore. That strikes me as a good thing.
| QUOTE |
| Either way it spells bad news for us, since all sourcebooks will be put on hold for the forseable future. |
Actually, no, the hold is basically over.
Really? Whens Arsenal coming out?
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By Out of Print, I meant out of Stock. No one could order it, or tell me when they could order it. SRRPG stated that a 4th printing would be realesed at the end of January, when in reality it was April before it became availible.
For a book seller, out of stock with no print date is for all intent and purposes, "Out of Print". If you can't tell them when you are going to print another edition, then who says you are?
---
By Out of Print, I meant out of Stock. No one could order it, or tell me when they could order it. SRRPG stated that a 4th printing would be realesed at the end of January, when in reality it was April before it became availible.
For a book seller, out of stock with no print date is for all intent and purposes, "Out of Print". If you can't tell them when you are going to print another edition, then who says you are?
| QUOTE (Shadow @ May 4 2007, 04:20 PM) | ||
Your right, money isn't the only factor, management is a big deal. I find it unbelivable that SR4 is "doing well". |
Unbelievable though it may be to you SR4 is (still) doing well. Core book sales continue to be strong and a significant portion of our 4th printing went to fulfill pending orders. By pretty much any standards SR4 is a success story in a uninspiring RPG market.
| QUOTE |
| If it was doing well I could have gone to my local gaming store in San Diego California and bought a copy of SR4. Instead of being told for almost 5 months that is was "out of print" |
SR4 was indeed temporarily out of stock between late-December and the first week of April (when the updated and errata'd 4th printing shipped). We fully expected to have the 4th printing in stores by early February but it too was delayed by recent developments.
| QUOTE |
| For a book seller, out of stock with no print date is for all intent and purposes, "Out of Print". If you can't tell them when you are going to print another edition, then who says you are? |
All vendors and distributors who had orders, and in fact anybody who bothered to ask or look it up, were kept up to date on the printing situation and expected reprint dates through normal avenues (including the distributor and FanPro's own retail page).
| QUOTE |
| So either it is doing well and is being mismanaged, or it isn't doing well. Either one would get the license yanked. And of course any official word is going to be bright and sunny since no one ever says the truth in business. My only hope is that the new company will not lead SR into further destruction. |
As other people have pointed out, the development team will be remaining in place and a lot of the administrative and commercial duties that the lead developer had to coordinate will be reassigned. I fully expect us to hit our stride in terms of release schedule, once the dust settles.
| QUOTE |
| Either way it spells bad news for us, since all sourcebooks will be put on hold for the forseable future. |
Publishing is on hold only for the very immediate future and will be resuming as soon as some final details are settled between all parties involved.
Well, as always Sin, thanks for clearing up my naysaying 
I really, really hope it continues to do well, and even grows under the new company. Years and years of being lied to by "upper management" has made me bitter and crotchety.
I really, really hope it continues to do well, and even grows under the new company. Years and years of being lied to by "upper management" has made me bitter and crotchety.
You guys sound like sony's pr team.
| QUOTE (Platinum) |
| You guys sound like sony's pr team. |
Although hopefully without downloading viruses onto your computer. I try to avoid doing that.
-Frank
The rootkit was installed from local storage. Your evasive answer sounds like an admission of guilt to me.
I have inside information that this switch is being done to foil investigation into the growing number of freelancers sacrificed to dark gods. Beware!
~J
I have inside information that this switch is being done to foil investigation into the growing number of freelancers sacrificed to dark gods. Beware!
~J
It would get me purchasing books again if they went back to SR3 and forgot all this silliness that is SR4, but that's not going to happen. A compromise that I would like to see would be would be SR3 books released as PDF at a cost that is not prohibitive. The reason is that I would like to have them electronically, but since I own all the SR3 books in hardcopy I am not paying a stupid price to get them again.
Hells, I'd be happy if they just got more of the old sourcebooks into e-books, starting with Threats 2 of course. 
Well, "prohibitive" is a matter of opinion, but they've got the stated intention to release the entire back catalogue as PDF, IIRC.
~J
~J
Well sure, but like everything Fourth Edition, it seems that turning Third into PDF has been moving at a pace that only an inebriated snail could admire.
Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad...
PDF releases will continue, and hopefully at a quicker rate, once the license transition is complete ... and once I've gotten the summer convention books safely off to press. 
Personally, I've seen at least one copy of SR4 in every major bookstore I've gone into within the last several months. This includes at least 3 seperate Barnes and Nobles and a Borders.
<edit> and this is in Long Beach, not that far north of SD
<edit> and this is in Long Beach, not that far north of SD
Well, I don't know about you, but for the vast majority of my life I never saw a copy of SR4 anywhere. No one even talked about their experiences with it—occasionally people would speculate, but it was impossible to find someone who had actually bought the thing. Clear sign of failure right there.
~J, playing the anecdote game to win
~J, playing the anecdote game to win
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