The demise of WizKids has been playing merry havoc with its intellectual properties. Of them, the most interesting to us has been BattleTech, but a recent interview with the folk at Catalyst Games (who produce the Classic BattleTech line) has clarified quite a few matters.
Classic BattleTech is dead. Long live BattleTech!
There is no longer a “Classic BattleTech” brand – it’s back under the old BattleTech logo.
BattleTech releases for 2009
* Strategic Operations – print version was delayed due to the change-over, should be out soon.
* Handbook: Major Periphery States is due very soon
* Jihad Hot Spots: 3076, likewise
* A Clan-themed Introductory box product is due later this year. (It adds to the Intro box set rather than being an alternative “in”). It’ll have plastic miniatures of elementals plus all the clan mechs except the Dasher.
* The BattleTech RPG “A Time of War” is also due this year. Hooray!
They’re also working on the “Hexpack” series – terrain and game aids for BattleTech play. “The HexPacks are currently set to include a double-sided mapsheet scaled for use with
extant BattleTech sheets, plus double-sided hex templates used to add variable features to the board. Also included in the HexPacks will be a booklet that explains the set and provides some fun gameplay options”.
On the WizKids purchase:
“At this time another purchaser has out-bid us, however, Topps has retained the ownership of BattleTech and Shadowrun, so we are not affected. We’ll be in touch with the new company (and Pi–ata is working with them currently) so we’re confident the lines have landed in solid hands.”
On Strategic Operations:
“This is a complicated question. SO went to press just as Topps closed WizKids, which left it in a legal limbo for several months. We were allowed to release the PDF, but the physical book needed to wait until we knew who had the property. Now that that’s all been cleared up, we’re in the process of stripping out the Classic’s and getting her off to press.”
Hey, it’s the 25th Anniversary! How are sales?
“Honestly, there hasn’t been a lull from the retailers side. They’ve been ordering our products in ever increasing amounts lately. We’ll have some more great products out this spring and summer though. However, BattleTech is on a meteoric rise in popularity lately. The times of worrying that BT is dead is long gone.”
“We are releasing a special 25th Anniversary fiction and art book for the occasion. What can I say except it’s coming along great and is packed with a metric ton of quality fiction? Should be a real treat!”
I’ve been pretty impressed with the quality of Catalyst’s Shadowrun books. Their release schedule has been a bit slow, but the quality’s been awesome. And they’ve been a bit quicker at getting stuff out than Fanpro.
So…I think ‘tech will be in good hands.