Battletech as a game first entered the market in the mid 80s and had an extremely loyal following until FASA the company responsible for creating this great game closed its doors. During this golden age of the game it was expanded to include an RPG (Mechwarrior) as well as branching into a variety of other markets, most notably CCGs (collectible card game) and computer games.
Upon the end of FASA the liscences to a variety of the products transfered to new owners. Wizkids a company that was made strong by the newer Collectible Minitures genera got the liscences to the Battletech board game, Mechwarrior RPG, and Shadowrun RPG (also owned by FASA) while the computer game liscence became the exclusive property of Microsoft, as well as the rights to the name of FASA Interactive.
Since Wizkids absorbed the liscence they have created a new CMG based on the game (Mechwarrior: Dark Ages) and created (or endorsed) an official Classic Battletech website. Recently Wizkids has begun to reprint a number of the Books (such as the Technical Read Outs) and create new products. |