I am waiting to see what Catalyst has to say before I make a public post. In the meantime, it's fair to note that the Operations Manager, Accountant/Office Manager, and Adam Jury (layout ninja) have all resigned. Catalyst didn't actually employ me, so I can't resign, but I will no longer be freelancing for them. Posthuman Studios is committed to continuing Eclipse Phase, though exactly how that will play out we can't say just yet. I also can't say just yet how this will affect the release schedule. We're working on it. As quoted on our twitter feed, publishers are like morphs, you can always resleeve if necessary.

Okay. Also, saw this reposted on 4chan's /tg/.

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I'll just leave it here. FrankTrollman post today, and hour ago, on dumpshock. "OK, as you may well have been able to surmise from release schedules, Catalyst Game Labs is in a bit of a financial pickle, and it is somewhat unlikely that they will retain the license to make Shadowrun products. This is not because Shadowrun hasn't been selling enough to cover expenses, but merely because a significant quantity of money is missing outright. Reliable sources put this figure at roughly $850,000. Which sounds like a lot, and it is. It is roughly 40% of Catalyst's entire sales for last year, missing over a three year period. There will of course be lawsuits, and there are already people drawing up legal documents accusing Loren Coleman of having hired people to construct an extension on his house through the company as "freelance writers" and somehow reporting an estimated $100,000 of convention sales as $6,000. Whether that is actually true or not is - of course - a matter for the courts to decide. And decide they presumably will." But what that means for Catalyst as a company is pretty bad. It costs several dollars to print a book even when the pdfs are finished and ready for publication. A print run of say, 50,000 books (like the print run of Runner Havens) would cost somewhere between $150,000 and $250,000 to print and ship to distributors. And while it eventually sold to distributors at ~$15 a book (a total take home of $750,000), it did so over a period of three years, during which time they were paying interest on loans and paying for storage, and advertisement and so on and so forth. A book like that isn't actually taking home half a million in profits. Which is a bad thing, because it means that even if there was a complete book printed and ready to sell, even a total and rapid sell through would not pull the company out of the financial hole it is in - and the shortfall means that it does not have the cash on hand to start the ball rolling with a new major printing. The tiny amount of drachmas that are left in the coffers are being used to print up tiny print runs of books that have sold through - another 3,000 books of Runner's Companion for example (~$15,000 to start up, maybe $30-40k towards paying creditors if it sells out). There simply is not the startup cash to bring upcoming books like the SR4 sixth world almanac or corporate guide forward. The writing is there, but the printing costs are not. Beyond that, the freelancers have not been paid, and some of them are withholding copyright until they are - meaning that even a tiny print run of these new materials is simply not possible. Many SR writers are quitting, have already quit, or have handed in notices contingent on demands which - word on the street - will not be met. And CGL does not even own Shadowrun, it leases the intellectual property from Topps. It seems unlikely that they will be able to make their licensing payment when the contract comes up for renewal - in a couple of months. At that time, CGL will cease being able to print Shadowrun or Battletech materials (they would presumably keep the license to Cthulhutech and Eclipse Phase for at least a little while longer, because those are separate contracts). So what does this mean for the future of Shadowrun? It probably means that someone else will create a company and start making Shadowrun again. After all, freelancers work for very little, and a well selling book can bring in tens of thousands of dollars in profits. $850,000 of embezzlement is seemingly enough to sink the company (whoever ended up with the credsticks), but I must point out that there was indeed eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars to steal, so Shadowrun is not - as a concept - insoluble. And I also point out that something similar happened to Shadowrun before. Indeed, twice before, as both FanPro and FASA before it collapsed under the weight of people not paying debts and having bags with dollar bill signs vanish mysteriously in the middle of the night. It's somewhat... poetic considering the subject matter of the game itself. It is entirely probable indeed that when a new company comes to take the licence, many familiar faces will appear in the new company as if they had never left. Certainly back when FanPro collapsed back when I was working for the company, I simply started working for the new company as if nothing had changed. This happened back when FASA collapsed as well - those members of the team that were not extracted by Microsoft simply started turning in writing assignments to the new boss.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF EDIT:

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Quoting from RPG.net: "As I've posted elsewhere, I'd like to ask everyone to slow down, take a deep breath, and be cautious before spreading rumors. I've asked Catalyst managers to issue a statement addressing the rumors, and hopefully one will be forthcoming soon. Jason H. Shadowrun Line Developer"

Honestly, I'm more afraid for Shadowrun and Battletech than anything. The one advantage that Eclipse Phase has is that it is owned by Posthuman Studios. Worst-case scenario says they need a new publisher, or go on to pure digital publishing (Lulu, perhaps?). On the other hand, the other two systems have already had a very tumultuous history. Perhaps the best scenario would have those two systems go back to Fanpro (if they want them back), but otherwise I have no clue what would happen to them I swear, SR and BT are like two smart kids that keep getting thrown into crappy foster homes. It makes me sad.

Time to keep my fingers crossed both for EP and SR, then. And an ear out for any news. I hate waiting...

Please don't think for a nanosecond I'm being snarky here because I'm being sincere. SP took a really bold step into the new economy by making the downloads freely available and assuming people would pay for them if they were reasonably priced, and I did for one. Now, if catalyst goes down, EP might look on it as a chance to go further into uncharted, or at least semi charted at best, territory and expand further into the "new economy" market in various ways. Exactly how, I'm not sure, but you might, for example, set up post human studio as an online company and save money by having users and fhans proofread chapters for you, sending them pdf's of chapters to proof along with NDAs to sign. Maybe you could become a company where fhans work at the place online for free just to see their names in a product, and continue to market EP as a PDF and POD options. You've probably thought of all this already, I grant. I'm just trying to offer encouragement. (As to catalyst, it's early to say what happened, but [b]IF[/b] the initial reports are true it sounds like someone there (No names mentioned) acted like a wallstreet pig or CEO scumbag. Sigh, I used to think gamers were better than those kinds of vermin...

Latest word: For Immediate Release Catalyst Game Labs recently completed a detailed financial review of the company. We learned that over the past several years the company has achieved dramatic growth in terms of demand, increased total revenues and strong sales with an increasing market share in the gaming industry, despite a lackluster economy. We are thrilled by that news and are eager to move forward with our upcoming original game Leviathans, along with our other new casual games. We also remain committed to plans for our beloved licensed games: Shadowrun, BattleTech, Eclipse Phase, and CthuluTech. While we wish the review had only uncovered positive news, we also discovered our accounting procedures had not been updated as the company continued to grow. The result was that business funds had been co-mingled with the personal funds of one of the owners. We believe the missing funds were the result of bad habits that began alongside the creation of the company, which was initially a small hobby group. Upon further investigation, in which the owner has willingly participated, the owner in question now owes the company a significant balance and is working to help rectify the situation. The current group of owners was presented with this information on Monday. Administrative organization for the company is under review, and accounting procedures have been restructured, to correct the situation and provide more stringent oversight. We feel the management team at Catalyst did the responsible thing by seeking this financial review and we will continue to restructure as needed. We are in discussions with our partners and freelancers to remedy any back payments that may also be due as a result of this review. We are embarrassed that this situation did occur but we hope our eagerness to make these changes, along with our reputation for making great games, will encourage you to stand by us. We understand that for a few employees the news was too stressful and we wish them all the best in their new endeavors. However, the majority of the team remains and will continue to bring great entertainment to you all. We appreciate the support our friends, freelancers, and fans have provided us in the past and look forward to a successful future.

I'm not trying to stir the pot or sound like I'm taking sides but Frank Trollman, while having left (or been evicted from) Catalyst in a huff, does consult with writers on Shadowrun products. Which is why he was the first to break the news. Yeah, his post definitely wasn't objective and there was malice and spite in there. The fact that he even posted it was malicious. He has a grudge, no doubt. Whether I blame him or not, I don't know as I'm an outsider working on hearsay. But in the long run this current spate of bad news is rather irrelevant. What Rob and company are saying here is that, worst comes to worst (and its obviously not at that point yet), Eclipse Phase gets a little more delayed in its release. It's not the end of the world or the end of the game. The same can be said of Wildfire's CthulhuTech if anyone plays that game. But my heart goes out to all the Catalyst company staff and freelancers who resigned, especially but not exclusively to Adam Jury and Jennifer Harding.

ol Frank holds a very specific view of where shadowrun should have gone with its tech (one example is his "reworked" matrix rules), that got overruled by the then line developer (that have since stepped down). He is, from the impression i have gathered, also very particular about the math making sense, and seems some edits of his submissions messed up some carefully worked out probabilities. Probabilities that was likely tweaked to fit his previously mentioned view of shadowrun. on that note, he was working as a freelancer, and so didnt so much resign as stopped taking future work on the shadowrun line. I think he spent the last year studying somewhere in eastern europe, and has rarely been spotted on dumpshock since.

I doubt the situation is as rosy as Catalyst is painting it. Staff can see the handwriting on the wall.

People could volunteer to proofread EP products in their spare time for free and not worry about being paid for it.

wesleystreet wrote:

People need to be paid for the work they do. I'm sure the creative team appreciates the sentiment and the love but it's not a good habit to get into when you're working on a professional product.

He isn't talking about them doing the work. He's saying that we, the fans, should do the proofreading. Essentially how the 2nd printing of the core book came to be, thanks to our input here on the forums.

If you decide to take Eclipse Phase off on its own and keep your overhead low, you could always continue on with the PDF publications with an optional Print On Demand (POD) service. Of course, you guys are the actual industry experts and will do what is best for the franchise and the consumer.

PhishStyx wrote:

Just out of curiosity, how does one get on your playtest list?

I, too, would like to know this information. For... uh... curiosity.... Yeah... curiosity.

wesleystreet wrote:

People need to be paid for the work they do. I'm sure the creative team appreciates the sentiment and the love but it's not a good habit to get into when you're working on a professional product.

I will not speak for everyone, but I do get paid for the work I do - as a system administrator. I game for fun, and the only thing that means more to me than my players having a good time (and blowing my plots out of the water) is gamers outside of my sphere of influence enjoy my work (or that of my players).

JRT wrote:

Just because you don't consider your game writing your "day job" doesn't mean you should cheapen the craft for those that do. A lot of writers suffer from this taint--I just watched a documentary on Harlan Ellison and he had a lot to say on this new (actually older than you think) attitude about writers being considering something "any shmuck" can do and in many cases they get exploited for free. I was more reacting to the original poster who suggested "people should work for free just to get their name in the book" and stuff like that. While I can see the Creative Commons as a nice experiment, I don't think everything should be released under that mantra and I think people need to keep that in mind.

Then you probably shouldn't work on Eclipse Phase, which is a Creative Commons game system, under which all material is Creative Commons-licensed. While the creators publish the works for sale at websites and stores in both PDF and hardcover form, all materials released so far are also published for free download. Besides, the intent of that post wasn't "you shouldn't expect money for your work, and just be thankful you got your name in the book". It was "there are plenty of fans of this game who would be willing to give free input on future products, and I think you should utilize that". Stop being so defensive about such a statement, because it's true. I, for one, would love to give free input (but would be more than willing to give input that I would get paid for; who wouldn't?). Plenty of people who already posted are in the same boat as I (and I'm willing to bet that they, too, wouldn't mind getting paid either; they just aren't necessarily requiring monetary compensation for their efforts).

Decivre wrote:

PhishStyx wrote:

Just out of curiosity, how does one get on your playtest list?

I, too, would like to know this information. For... uh... curiosity.... Yeah... curiosity.

I as well. I would love to playtest for EP and PHS!

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Just out of curiosity, how does one get on your playtest list?

Drop me a line through the Contact form on the site. Don't be discouraged if I take a while to get back to you -- I tend to handle the playtesting stuff in periodic chunks, and that includes getting new folks involved.

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This is purely out of worst-case-scenario curiosity, but if Catalyst Games Labs' problems halt the printing of Sunward, will it at least be made available in PDF format?

We fully plan to finish and print the book. Even in the midst of the Catalyst chaos, we're wrapping up getting the final artwork for the book in now.

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Supposedly they sent out a list of SR and Ctulhutech material that can no longer be sold effectively immediately.

Some freelancers (including me) whose payments are overdue have revoked their copyright on some books that are currently in circulation. (By the terms of the contracts, you still own the copyright for your work until you've been paid.) So Catalyst has had to pull some stock out of circulation for the time being.

RobBoyle wrote:

Quote:

Just out of curiosity, how does one get on your playtest list?

Drop me a line through the Contact form on the site. Don't be discouraged if I take a while to get back to you -- I tend to handle the playtesting stuff in periodic chunks, and that includes getting new folks involved.

Will do, thanks!

RobBoyle wrote:

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Just out of curiosity, how does one get on your playtest list?

Drop me a line through the Contact form on the site. Don't be discouraged if I take a while to get back to you -- I tend to handle the playtesting stuff in periodic chunks, and that includes getting new folks involved.

I guess I had better send an email.

wesleystreet wrote:

Any official word if Posthuman Studios will follow WildFire out the door?

There is from Catalyst (and yes, they are). http://catalystgamelabs.com/2010/04/06/catalyst-game-labs-negotiating-to...

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Catalyst Game Labs Negotiating To Part Ways With WildFire And Posthuman Studios Catalyst Game Labs is currently engaged in negotiations to end its agreements with WildFire and Posthuman Studios. Once the terms are finalized, Catalyst will no longer publish CthulhuTech or Poo: The Card Game for WildFire, nor will they co develop and publish Eclipse Phase for Posthuman Studios. “It’s been fantastic to be involved with growing CthulhuTech alongside WildFire, while also launching Posthuman Studios’ Eclipse Phase,” said Randall Bills, Managing Developer. “We love both of these universes and want to seem them grow and flourish. However, in our current situation we need to re-focus on our core brands of BattleTech and Shadowrun, while developing our original games. As such, while we are parting ways with both companies, we’ll be doing everything we can to support WildFire and Posthuman Studios as they assume the full mantle for their game lines.” Future details surrounding CthulhuTech will be found at www.cthulhutech.com, while future Eclipse Phase details will be found at www.eclipsephase.com.

AdamJury wrote:

A very happy, healthy, sexy-space-whale-filled future.

Thanks for the update Adam, though I'm somewhat concerned re the quote above... ;) AJC

AdamJury wrote:

Go look at the Sunward cover!

It's my desktop background. Saving the Twitter background was cleverish.

One thing that crossed my mind right now... What about the PDF of the corebook i bought? How is the legal status with this one, will i still be able to download an updated version with a new publisher (if they let themselves negotiate into that, of course)?

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What about the PDF of the corebook i bought? How is the legal status with this one, will i still be able to download an updated version with a new publisher (if they let themselves negotiate into that, of course)?

Posthuman will still continue to sell through DriveThruRPG. If you bought the PDF through Battlecorps, you will not be able to get updates from them anymore, BUT we are looking into sending all of those people a coupon for the PDF on DriveThru so that you can download updates from DriveThru instead.

CodeBreaker wrote:

I imagine any deal that they negotiate would revolve around keeping the CC license. Its kind of their big selling point.

The CC license was our idea from the beginning and we are committed to publishing all of our books under the same license in the future.

Note to self: check with Rob to see if he's replying to threads so we don't double-up. ;-)