You heard wrong. That's the launch date for SR5.

They announced it a long time ago.

~J

But ... but ... Arsenal is due early in the new year. That's just too close for comfort.

On Holostreets

Sorry, simply not true. Any time we spend talking about Holostreets -- "Yes, it's really going to happen!" -- is time that isn't spent working on it [or something else important.]

As for SOLA, it's really not "basically just done." It's written, but hasn't been through a full dev-edit pass, nor a copy-edit pass, and there's no artwork.

Well, honestly, if it WAS ever going to be done, we would have heard something by now other then some interview files that, btw, were never on cgl or any other official source, so their veracity(like yours, since this is not CGL or any official source) is questionable, with Boyle saying something about player and game master accounts. We would, in fact, be seeing requests for fiction submissions for it like we saw for Battlecorps(we had those, what, 6 months to a year before Battlecorps opened up?) Give people some proof that it has EVER been worked on(as, I do remember a post on Battlecorps about a year or so ago where it was stated that Holostreets had never been worked on because they did not have the people to have both holostreets and Battlecorps), and, oh, yeah, give the information link off of CGL's site something OTHER then a dead link, and maybe we can believe that it really is coming one day. As it stands right now, though...well...I have heard too many promises from Battlecorps that they have not lived up to..why should I not just lump Holostreets with things like exclusive previews and miniatures, and chat logs?

Actually, it was confirmed on Battlecorps that Holostreets IS NOT being worked on, that the people who would have been working on it have been pulled to work on getting the book release schedule up to date. Personally, I would rather they either got it done or canceled it, not keep saying "Oh..we are working on it..after we get this done." or "We don't have te man power, since our staff are entirely unpaid volunteers, so as soon as we get people who want to work for free, we will get it going."

Honestly, give us some previews, or something..give the people who want to see Shadowrun not keep being treated as Catalysts red-headed step child something to show it is being worked on.

You appear to not be paying much attention to anything other than the occasional Holostreets update.

Actually, you appear to not really be paying much attention to those, either. They've been very clear, several times now, that they are putting books that will make them money ahead of a freebie that won't. They have kept us updated on the fact that it still exists and hasn't been forgotten. They also keep us up to date regularly on the status of upcoming books (again, see: that make them money) for the currently supported edition.

On that note, it's worth noting that although SoLA will probably be useful for SR4 background info, it's not native to SR4.

I want SoLA just as bad as the next guy, and I'd probably be all about Holostreets too (even at cost; hell, I could probably ditch my as of yet useless Hellgate subscription and maintain the same cashflow, give or take). But for my day to day Shadowrun stuff, I need Arsenal and Unwired a hell of a lot more than I need to read the occasional piece of fanfic (no offense to fanfic authors, I love your stuff) or a new spell in a game where there are plenty of spells to kill and maim with already.

Why do you need Arsenal? There are plenty of guns to shoot stuff with as it is now. And, Unwired..why? There are plenty of Programs already.

I would think, though, that a guaranteed steady income like they have with BattleCorps would be *as* important as 30 dollar books that not everyone is going to buy. Sure, I buy every book as it comes out, but that is only beause I am more likely to be GM. Players generally just buy the core book, and one book that is for what they specialize in. And, people only buy a book once, so there is the issue of market saturation, since Shadowrun is, basicly, a smaller Market then White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast, it will be saturated with a given book faster. Holostreets will be better for long term money making.

In fact, I expect that Holostreets is going to have to be made like D&D Insider, with the capabilities to run games from the site itself.

Unwired will have advanced matrix rules that will likely answer many of the questions that every Tom, Dick, and Harry have been making up their own answers for here and elsewhere. I don't care about new/more, I do care about explanations and examples of what's already there.

Arsenal will have more guns, sure. But it will also have more drones, more vehicles IIRC, and likely a lot more explanation on using them and running the game.

I want the rules and explanations from these books, because all of these things are core parts of the game.

It wouldn't be Shadowrun anymore if the matrix rules were well organized, logical, and easy to run. Besides what would DSrs bitch about and spend hours and hours inventing houserules for.

Guns!