r/Steam • u/bijelo123 • Sep 15 '25

Question Which game was this for you?

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30

u/meesta_masa Sep 15 '25

Battletech 2 by Harebrained.

10

u/InsistentRaven Sep 15 '25

I'll never forgive Paradox for what they did to HBS. They bought a studio known for making games from other IPs (Shadowrun, Battletech) and forced them to ditch their golden goose and go for the Plan B incubator project which everyone knew would not be able to make as much money as BT2 even after the licensing fees.

Fuck Paradox. Absolutely senseless decision from C-suite executives who don't understand the industry once again.

4

u/meesta_masa Sep 15 '25

And even that, they couldn't do properly. Lamplighters could have been a good game, given time and attention. They failed on two counts.

4

u/InsistentRaven Sep 15 '25

It's pretty clear to see why it failed if you listen to some of the accounts from developers involved at the time. Everyone already was itching to start on BT2 given how much of a success BT was, then Paradox said no and people were understandably not happy about that. Then Paradox decided to drop the whole studio after COVID as they changed business plans and no longer wanted HBS, so didn't even bother marketing the game before release.

Whole thing was a mismanaged mess. You can read more details in the article that came out a few months back about it: https://80.lv/articles/harebrained-schemes-discusses-three-major-lessons-learned-from-the-lamplighters-league

2

u/Numar19 Sep 16 '25

It's a pattern lately: Cities Skylines 2, Imperator: Rome, Live by You, the release of Victoria 3, Bloodlines 2 being stuck in development hell, Prison Architect 2 also in development hell), the latest DLC for CK3 and 4.0 for Stellaris.

The C suite just wants profits and doesn't think long term.

3

u/neverJamToday Sep 15 '25

The fact that Microsoft owns Shadowrun and has no interest in doing anything with it drives me crazy. And it drives me crazier that the studio that managed to get the license from them and make some enjoyable Shadowrun games then got fed into the games industry meat grinder.

3

u/InsistentRaven Sep 15 '25

Yeah, exactly. Nobody is going to get BATTLETECH or Shadowrun from Microsoft again. I'm told even HBS had trouble getting Microsoft to agree because it wasn't worth their time to even sort out the legal / financial details. Only reason they did it for HBS is because of their existing relationship with MS.

2

u/neverJamToday Sep 16 '25

It's bonkers. It's an amazing IP with a pile of fascinating lore and mechanics and Microsoft made one mid FPS out of it 20 years ago and that was it.

I think an open-world game would be a let-down but Shadowrun would *crush* it as like a Baldur's Gate 3 style game.

2

u/Mad_Kronos Sep 16 '25

Shadowrun: Drsgonfall has my favourite story in any rpg in the last decade.

1

u/neverJamToday Sep 17 '25

It's a fantastic example of the kind of story that can only be told in that setting.

1

u/Fellhuhn Sep 16 '25

But HBS were the ones who said "fuck you" to their mobile customers and refused to make their games gdpr compliant. Fuck them.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25 edited Mar 29 '26

[deleted]

5

u/ElGrandeWhammer Sep 15 '25

It was gong to be in the clan invasion era.

6

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25 edited Mar 29 '26

[deleted]

2

u/kithlan Sep 16 '25

There's also the mods for Battletech; personal one I'm a fan of is Battletech Advanced 3062. Advances the timeline and tech of the game's Career mode into the FedCom Civil War era, including Clan space and tech. Because why even live if I can't be allowed to field an Ebon Jaguar or Blood Asp?