It seemed even less surprising when Ensemble turned a strategy-game project into Halo Wars, a spin-off of Microsoft’s biggest video game lineage. Microsoft published both series, so it seemed a natural, prosperous fit when Microsoft bought up the developer in 2001. Microsoft folded Digital Anvil’s staff into the larger Microsoft Game Studios in 2005, though the developer technically existed until 2006.Įnsemble rose on the success of simulations like Age of Empires and Age of Mythology. It met with decent sales and middling reviews. Several Digital Anvil projects shuffled to other developers, with the racing game Loose Cannon disappearing entirely, and the company concentrated on Starlancer’s ambitious sequel, Freelancer.įreelancer arrived as a Windows-only game in 2003, and the developer turned to an Xbox exclusive with the terrestrial, squad-based action game Brute Force that same year. Digital Anvil was a Microsoft company by the end of that year, and changes were in store. The studio’s founders included many former staffers from the popular Wing Commander titles, and their first game, Starlancer, evoked the same style of spaceship dogfight upon its March 2000 debut. Microsoft might have eyed Digital Anvil for a while. Whatever Bungie’s future might be, Microsoft isn’t controlling it directly. As 343 went to work on Halo sequels, Bungie’s space-opera shooter Destiny emerged as a multiplayer hit under the developer’s new alliance with Activision. Even so, the detachment led Bungie to seek newer ground. Microsoft still owns the rights to all things Halo and remains on seemingly good terms with Bungie. From then on, Bungie was the house of Halo, devoted to the series even after separating from Microsoft in 2007. The developer’s success undoubtedly led Microsoft to acquire them in late 2000. Yet Bungie’s roots go back further to ‘90s computer titles like Marathon and Myth-and even to an anime-action game called Oni. Shadowrun games would survive, however, as the license found its way back to series creator Jordan Weisman and the Kickstarter-fed RPG series Shadowrun Returns.īungie is forever tied to Halo, whether it’s the entire series or the original game that single-handedly made the Xbox stand out at its 2001 launch. It arrived in May of 2007, and Microsoft gave FASA Studio a good four months before shutting them down. ![]() Microsoft set FASA Studio to work on a game based on Shadowrun and its magical cyberpunk trappings, though the developer crafted a first-person shooter instead of any RPG. When Microsoft branched out into consoles with the Xbox, FASA delivered two MechAssault games, though their best-known work has no futuristic battle-bots it’s the 2003 flight-shooter Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. In 1999 Microsoft bought and renamed them FASA Studio, and they continued with various forms of MechWarrior 4. FASA’s game division emerged in 1995 under the name FASA Interactive Technologies and, true to Battletech’s theme, made games about mecha. FASA is a name better known for tabletop roleplaying hits like Shadowrun and Battletech, but those popular titles lent themselves quite well to video games.
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