Hey Mark,

Was there any news specifically about Microprose? I think it was the core of Hasbro Interactive, but they still kept the name around. What about now? Also, any word on MOO3? Is it still in the pipes?

The news I posted was pretty much all I received. It doesn't look like Microprose is working on much. Last I heard MOO3 was still on. I don't think it was intended to be out this year anyway, so them not mentioning it isn't cause for alarm as far as I know.

My over all feeling from the people I know and talk too that work at Hunt Valley is that Infogrames plans to have third party contractors develop Microprose prime properties beyond MOO3 and Civ 3. As for what will happen to the development studio at Hunt Valley (the original Microprose) no one can say but it appears they are working on less at the moment. This ofcourse can change but, my gut feeling is, (nothing I've been told), things aren't going to go the happily ever after route.

Last I heard, the two 3D X-Com games, the squad-based Alliance and ... the other one (an FPS whose name eludes me) are still going as well. Alliance keeps getting pushed off. (I did a feature on it for PC Games almost two and half years ago. :-/)

My feeling is that Alliance is dead.

Infogrames just put out their schedule for the year and Alliance wasn't on it. I don't think it's being worked on and is probably dead.

Enforcer should be out soon though.

Here is a rumor that I've seen in a few places. Fatbabies has a horrible record and everything they write should be taken with a grain of salt. This is from August when Alliance seem to hit the skids.

"Sometime in July the lead programmer for X-Com Alliance, not the Tank title, Tank had already been canceled by this time, was hauled off from the Hunt Valley studio office in handcuffs by the Baltimore County police. Shortly thereafter this said lead programmer was canned by the company. Great mystery surrounding this decision, a lot of serious hand wringing, "Oh so sorry we can't talk about it," the Studio Head promised that he would come back, but oh the Hasbro legal department and mother fucking Tom the Dunce made sure that it wasn't so. Now whatever this guy did could not have been that serious because he secured employment with a defense contractor and obtained a security clearance in the Washington D.C. area within 60 days of being canned by Hasbro. So now it is July-August 2000 at the Hunt Valley Studio, formerly Microprose, and the studio does not really have anything in production. Because believe me baby at this point 'X-COM Alliance' is a dead fucking duck and it will never see the light of day and what has transpired since then only confirms this. So about 75 people are sitting around at this time sucking their thumbs or whatever bodily appendage they prefer.

Along about August of 2000 Tom the Dunce, Dave Albert and Tony Parks decided that the next high profile burning project that the Hunt Valley studio should do is Monopoly for the PS2. Oh wait a minute we changed our mind instead we want you to do Monopoly Casino for the PC. I'll give you a clue, Monopoly Casino is just that, casino games with a Monopoly theme, oh what a thrill, everyone just jumped at the chance to work on that abortion. People are still leaving at a prodigious rate and morale could not be lower when Tom the Dunce, Dave Albert and Tony Parks decide that the thing to do is to salvage X-COM Alliance with a Smash TV rip-off called X-COM Enforcer before the end of the year. Simply because they have just got to have product out the door before Christmas. So guys and girls you have 4 months to complete a triple-A product. Yea right. Oh gosh, by the way if you had taken those people sitting around sucking bodily appendages you could have had Tank! by this time. DOH. Beavis and Butthead could do a better job.

Recently Hasbro has made public their desire to explore 'strategic alternatives' AKA let's sell this piece of shit while it is still worth something. They have promised existing staff a bonus of 25% yearly salary if they stay on board through the transition and a 50% bonus if they get sold and then get laid off. Good luck to you boys and girls. So if said Studio Head left a "fuck you" to the Hasbro Execs, they deserved it and a heck of a lot more. By the way Monopoly Casino & X-COM Enforcer are still in production, so I guess people aren't just sitting around sucking on their favorite bodily appendage. Or mmmm, maybe they are. "
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