Since doing a search showed there are actually quite a few fellow fans on the boards, I thought I’d write here what’s up with the license, for those of you who fell out of touch. For those of you who don’t know, Battletech is an indepth, turn-based tabletop game of war-strategy set against a sci-fi backdrop of new dark-age driven by intense, nationalistic warfare and political intrigue among humanity in the 31st century (no aliens or sentient robots!). It spawned a succesful series of sci-fi novels, as well as many video and computer games, a short-lived cartoon show (ugh, butone of the first to prominantly use CG-animation sequences), Models, Miniatures, and many other paraphernalia. Anything Mechwarrior, Mechcommander, Mechassault (ugh, the bastard-child), or basically anything esle with “Mech” in the title is based on Battletech.
Back in the mid-90’s, FASA (the smallish Chicago company that made the line) got caught up in a lawsuit filed by Harmony Gold, owners of distribution rights within North America for big-name anime series Macross (and creators of that hack-job bastardization Robotech, which spliced Macross with two other old, well-loved anime series). Seems that many of the oldest, most classic Battlemechs (2-4 story tall robots piloted by people, these are the main tools of war in the story) actually were (very closely) based on images of Macross designs. Now, as a fan of Japanese Manga and Anime, in my experience most companies are pretty lax about their copyrights as long as other people using them acknowledge who created them (see the widely succesful Dojinshi, basically fan-comic, industry), so it’s unlikely Macross’ creators would have started this anyways.
But, HG is owned by Playmates, a large toy company that recently had issues with FASA when they pulled the plug on the Battletech cartoon series (responding to low ratings and a movement by BT-fans to end the show), and thus killed off the toy-line before it ever really had a chance at success. Guess who bankrolled HG’s lawyers?
FASA was forced to shut down business for a while because of this, and only got back underway after agreeing to never use their derivative images again. During this time, one of FASA’s founding members, and the creator of Battletech, Jordan Weisman, left to start a new company, Wizkids Games, who would eventually launch Mage Knight, a fantasy wargame using painted miniatures with dial-bases that reveal info about the unit and can be twisted to change said info as the unit takes damage (NO PEN AND PAPER), as well as a Super-Hero themed game of the same type named Hero Clix, which uses actual, licensed heroes (even DC vs Marvel!). FASA then began to rapidly introduce as many new series as they were already make (another 3 besides Shadowrun, Battletech, and Earthdawn: Crucible, VOR, and Crimson Skies), as well as creating their own computer-game company after finally dissolving relations with Activision over their refusal to more closely follow Battletech with their famous Mechwarrior computer game series. This rapid over-expansion led to financial problems, and not long after it became apparent FASA was going out of business.
During this time, FASA tried to win back author and long-time license-development collaborator Michael A. Stackpole (who had quit writing for them when their publisher wouldn’t pay his royalties, and he began to fill his schedule with Star Wars novels and even more important; increasing chances to publish his own original stories) to write a final trilogy. He wrote an outline, and agreed to let someone else write the actual novel. Loren L. Coleman, another long-time series writer/developer took on the task, and the trilogy was published (albeit as separate books, not a set; Patriots and Tyrants , Storms of Fate , and End Game ).
While Coleman was writing these, Weisman’s Wizkids Games made an offer to pick up the rights for Battletech and Shadowrun. He wanted to use a revised version of Mage Knight’s system for a new Battletech game, which would jump ~80 forward in the fiction (to simplify writing new stories, as they had written themselves into a corner), and would be marketed under the most reckonized name: Mechwarrior. This is extremely good by the way (the only downside is you can no longer edit and create your own units!).
Microsoft bought out their development studio FASA Interactive, and made it FASA Studios (who make some AWESOME games for X-box and PC). Unfortunately, MS also bought Crimson Skies (which they license to Wizkids, who makes a “Clix” game of it), and the electronic publishing rights for Battletech and Shadowrun, so anything on the computer or for videogames either has to be made by them, or get their go-ahead. At least Wizkids still holds the Intellectual Property rights for BT and SR, so MS can’t bastardize them without their acceptance.
Weisman licensed out continued production of the Battletech line of products, as well as development of new Classic Battletech products (as they are called) to FanPro, a german table-top game company who had been a long-term affiliate of FASA, translating their products for release there (Battletech was big in Canada and the UK, Shadowrun was BIG in Germany). FanPro had been looking to expand into the US to sell their original games here, and hired whatever FASA employees weren’t already with Wizkids or leaving the table-top gaming industry. Their new CBT line is EXCELLENT, by the way.
As an ode to old-school fans, one of FanPro’s first big releases was BT: Technical Readout: Project Phoenix. Like other TRO’s it was a listing of the stats and fiction behind new combat units, with art (really good art, think TRO’s 3060 and 3067). However, PP (grow up!) is an ode to the old fans, bringing back the Unseen (as they became known after the lawsuit) with new looks that capture the feel and style of the old, but are wholly original. Now players could once again play their Warhammers, Marauders, Riflemen, etc.
Wizkids immediately used these new images to incorporate these classics into their MW game, and miniatures for use with BT quickly became available.
Today, Wizkids, FanPro, FASA Studio and more are keeping BT alive and Kicking, with new products of every kind, including a continued line of Novels under the Mechwarrior name, featuring the limited return of Micahel A. Stackpole (a mjor play in MW’s development, he got to write the first new novel, Ghost War ) and all the other old favorite authors (Coleman, Thurston, Pardoe, to name a few). While FanPro is not looking to continue the CBT series of novels, there is a fangroup you can join which features regular updates of short-stories and serials written by all the favorite writers and more, called Battlecorps. Also, don’t miss HeavyMetal Labs, a one-man operation whose excellent (and officially licensed) computer-program game-aids are now even used by FanPro themselves to design new units and so on.
Here’s looking forward to what is yet to come!
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