Jordan Weisman has a long history in game development, first in table-top games like BattleTech, Crimson Skies and Shadowrun at FASA Corporation and later for video games with the same licenses at FASA Interactive. Still, even he wasn't able to keep his development team cohesive after it was bought out by Microsoft.
"When Microsoft bought FASA Interactive and incorporated it into Microsoft... the two reasons they bought us was, one, they wanted the catalogue of intellectual properties and, two, they felt that we had developed a really good development culture. And the reality is that, pretty much from the day we moved to Redmond, that development culture was destroyed," said Weisman to GI.biz. "I don't think the studio ever really had a chance. It was destroyed right in the beginning."
The developer became FASA Studio, Weisman said his role changed and his staff was not reporting to him. "I was creative director for the entire group - all 300 people, not just the 60 that came with me from Chicago - so that didn't help either," he noted.
Weisman learned from the experience and was better able to keep another studio cohesive when it was acquired by Microsoft: Halo developers Bungie. "When we were acquiring Bungie, they wanted me to sit down with the owners of Bungie and tell them how well the transition went," explained Weisman. "And it was like - 'what planet are you guys on?' This transition did not go well. And actually I became the lead vocal pain in the ass to get things done very different for Bungie."
"I tried to convince them to leave Bungie in Chicago, but not winning that I did succeed in getting them to put them in a walled off room, which didn't follow any of the other Microsoft stuff," he noted. "We were much better able to defend Bungie's culture than we were FASA's culture."
While Weisman's primary venture with Smith & Tinker is Nanovor, something like an online toy, he's also trying to resurrect the MechWarrior game franchise with developer Piranha Games. Because of the FASA acquisition by Microsoft, working deals out for his old IP has been difficult. "I guess one of the disadvantages to being old is that you outlive your children sometimes," he acknowledged. "And in this case, my children are owned by different people around the world and so it becomes a different kind of relationship."
4 Comments
August 26, 2009
Ah, MechWarrior, I still play the series to this day.
Awsome games.
You've done well Weisman if that's your game, because you've certainly made me very happy!
:)
August 26, 2009
Having worked at MS in the Xbox group during this time I think MS affords a partner/studio fiscal security and technical savvy at the cost of process and hands on oversight. I think this discipline is needed and warranted in the industry as we mature and development costs skyrocket.
However, it can be a shock to a developer/studio used to an 'organic' production environment.
August 26, 2009
Fair point, Eric. I'm sure there are advantages and disadvantages for any studio to be overseen by MS. Lionhead certainly seems happy with it, and the Fable franchise no doubt has benefited.
August 26, 2009
A benefit that Lionhead had was that it didn't have to physically relocate itself to Redmond from the U.K. - I could see how relocation along with reorganization could quickly destroy a studio's culture and identity.