That's budgeting:)

Unless you're an owner, then it's a couch.

I've slept on the couches of a few game company* owners, and some of them are very comfy, but not 60K comfy.

(*Green Ronin currently has the winning couch.)

Suddenly, I can't remember the name "Z" comes to mind. But you should try the owner of AEG's couch.

BlueMax

I'm told that you can save substantial money using East Asian printers, even after shipping. Same quality, just adds a substantial amount of time to the printing cycle.

Printing in asia was cheaper for a period of time, but things are swinging back towards North American printing.

Hilariously, that makes this even more accurate.

Frank said recently that CGL has run out of printers they can stiff.

"But I promised to get to the whole printing being a cash-upfront situation - mostly. There are in fact printers who will take promises to pay and bill later. And Loren Coleman found some of them. He found four of them. One in Thailand, one in China, one in Canada, and one in the United States. And he stiffed all of them. Which means that all four of them are currently holding the remaining books until IMR pays them. And good luck to them with that. "

Nah, I think we all need a Prisoner chair, so we can sit in it and think about Shadowrun stuff:

http://www.eero-aarnio.com/8/Objects/Ball_Chair.htm

This is really, really bad.

Amusing and, considering FanPro's practices in the past, quite viable. Of course, Chris Lonsing is the bigger, meaner and more evil clone of LLC. Hilariously, someone actually employed that ....... person again.

Then again, IMR DOES seem intent on paying outstanding bills, so ... maybe they're paying those too, now?

If that's the case, how come new books are coming out, like BT's Operation Klondike and the repring of the Runner's Companion?

Maybe Frank isn't as up to date as he tinks?

Or Randall Bills decided a bunch of Thai mercenaries were cheaper than paying the print run bill and had them retrieve it for him (the print run, not the bill) and send it via UPS. Of course, I doubt mercenaries are as cheap as SR4 payment rules would have us think.

So, $893.02 per person, per day, for professional bodyguards in a hot zone.

Are you applying logic here?

If your going to apply logic, may I recommend applying it to MegaMek? Java is far more reasonable than Dumpshock.

BTW, thanks for the updates


BlueMax

Hardcore. Well, maybe Mr. Bills actually had the bills payed? It's not that much of an esotheric approach to business, especially given someone with money and influence in the gaming industry seems to back CGL.

I so will remember that number for the next game's payment, though.

You forgot to take the fixer's cut into account. The mercs were really paid 93.02 per day (worst job ever).

And they had to bring their own PBJs because the job didn't include lunch.

I wonder if LLC paid *them*.

Hm, near as I can tell, Blackwater employees gross around $600 per day in hot zones, making the fixer's cut about 30%.

Hmm, if books are held at the printers and Shadowrun goes from CGL to somehwere else, they could pay the printers for the books and have soemthing to ship completely done right?

Theoretically yes, practically ... no. There are still print runs of novels belonging to FanPro out there in legal limbo.

Sounds like a nasty divorce.

You could say that. A good number of German authors are VERY bitter still about the bills FanPro left unpaid (and I recon that goes for international authors too).

Fanpro Germany was - IIRC- still publishing Shadowrun novels written by German authors after Fanpro US folded and failed to renew the license with Wizkids. Unfortunately, even after CGL became the new licensee, no agreement was made between CGL and Pegasus regarding new Shadowrun novels.
@hermit: I assume you are referring to the authors of the German novels?

Not being up to date admittedly, I am referrig to the German Sourcebook writers too, but also the novelists - Alex Wichert, and two other novels that never even saw distribution, weren'T ever paid, if I am correctly informed, which I kind of hope I am not.

But the books had been printed already? D'oh.

There was a rumour like that, yes. The lost novel, so to speak.

I can just picture my reprint of Runner's Companion showing up smelling of gun powder. One more for the, "Oh, I HAVE to use that in a game." list.

Woohoo! I just landed a new job/career, and my LE #603 came in. It is days like this where nothing can get me down.

I can also personally confirm the LE does exist and is being shipped and sold.

I picked a copy of the LE up in a shop in Columbus, OH over the weekend.

Any further news on this yet?

EDIT: Looked up the original docs again. I think today is their deadline. I'm guessing we won't really hear anything for a few days after that without some form of press release.

One little thing from me: I just want to point out that IMR is, in fact, being represented by a lawyer--they just switched to one with more expertise in this particular area.

Jason H.

Since it's only a side note in the release where it should be big news, I'd like to have it clarified: Did CGL get an extension of the license from Topps? Is this a "cut and dried" decision yet?

It appears that this is seperate from the main licence.

so no the drama has not come to a end.

I see. So this was just Topps licensing the Shadowrun property to Lone Wolf so they could create a Shadowrun database for Hero Labs. Cheers for the clarification. They should be more careful with any combination of the words "Topps", "licence" and "approve" in the future. Made my heart jump.

Well, it looks like it it was Topps approving a sub-license from CGL to Herolab. Which they have been working
on for almost two years(I remember reading about it being mentioned at GenCon 2008, and I saw something
about it at GenCon 2009). The License issue they were hammering out first was the Microsoft one, IIRC.
However, I think we can say that Topps approving this license is Good News, as why would a company
approve a sub-license for something that is not going to be ready or make them money in 3 days, the time
left on the current CGL License, unless they are going to be renewing the license?

As a side note: I was kind of happy seeing this thread drop off the front page..since it wasn't something that
someone new to SR would have seen. I mean, after all, this is the official "unofficial" forum(what with the website
directing people here).

As for this thread: Well, here it is again. News has been running hot on the CGL blog, so why shouldn't it here? Besides: If there's serious trouble with a product, I do want to know, no matter whether I'm a newbie or a veteran.



It's only "good news" (for CGL, that is) if this is a sub-licence from Catalyst to Lone Wolf (meaning that it would collapse as soon as Catalyst loses the SR licence). If it is only a contract between Topps and Lone Wolf, leaving CGL out of the equation, all bets are off.

While it is not definitive the fact that CGL is involved in the process at all so close to the main license deadline is actually a fairly good sign.

IMR would be involved as long as they were holding the license. While I call this great news for the line, it doesn't really factor in on the IMR side other than that they were finally able to close the deal.

I thought the delay was because the rights as regards electronic supplements to the table top game versus electronic entertainment properties for Shadowrun was so murky. If the tool vs. game distinction is clear and the rights holder of the table top game can work with developers on software tools without stepping on M$'s toes, that's going to open up some seriously cool opportunities for the game.

While we'll probably never see it, I'd love to see the terms (as it regards to what was licensed) for all three licensees (IMR/CGL, Microsoft, Lone Wolf Labs).

It would be interesting as to who gets to develop what content, etc. AFAIK, IMR/CGL (the "main" licensee) sets the cannon universe and RPG and Microsoft can make electronic entertainment products "based on" the main license. That would imply that Lone Wolf Labs can make tools that support the main license, specifically the tabletop RPG.

-M&P

The FASA/MS documentation has repeatedly been described as a byzantine disaster of epic proportions. Every public indication, from Rick re: HMP, FanPro, Catalyst and even MS has been that no one seems to really know who owns what or in what context, and that MS is very reluctant to make concessions. Every deal has to be run through MS legal a dozen times and carefully scrubbed so that it's clearly a rifle shot and not an acquiescence that will weaken their position in the future.

No, for some reason they can't. Hence the crapfest that is Shadowrun, the 3d shooter game. At least, I read they made the game deliberatly un-canon so they could circumvent license red tape.

The press release says that CGL and Lone Wolf entered into a license agreement:
"Catalyst Game Labs and Lone Wolf Development are pleased to announce that they have entered into a new, long-term license for the Shadowrun intellectual property"

I hope this means that the license for Lone Wolf extends to whoever ends up with the license. It would make sense, and explain why Topps was mentioned.

I'm pretty sure it will, considering there's no reason in the world Topps would okay this (even if it was set up quite a while back), if they're giving the license to someone else, and it couldn't be transfered. Personally, I think it's more a sly statement on who Topps is renewing the license with.

That's how it was worded, which put the hairs on the back of my neck at attention. More likely it seems like an attempt to put Topps and IMR in the same statement which makes the whole thing seem like a done deal. If it was really so sure, do you think they would want to hint at it, or just get to announcing it?

I'd imagine they'll certainly get to announcing it, if/when the deal is done. Still reads like expected to me. "Topps okayed this sub-license. Make of that what you will."

I doubt IMR would be free to make any official anouncement before the deal is done. But if this license agreement is based on the negotiations started 2+ years ago, one could assume that CGL is highly involved. It seems to me that Topps wouldn't allow this to move forward as is if they didn't intend to renew with CGL.