Interviews// Shadowrun Producer, Mitch Gitelman

SPOnG: Yeah, sure – he’s the president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft Corp.

Mitch Gitelman Okay, well what happened was that I saw this memo that went out to all the senior people in the [games] division… this is years ago… talking about connected entertainment and stuff like that. Y’know he wasn’t talking about a vision really. He wasn’t saying let’s do this or let’s do that. He was just saying “in the future it’s going to be like this and I just want to let you know what the future looks like” really just so we could start to move in that direction. So, I got inspired by that. We had a prototype of Shadowrun at the time and so I said, “Let’s make this cross-platform” and I went to my bosses: Peter Moore and Shane Kim, and said “We can do Shadowrun cross platform” and they simply told me, “Do it!” So, that’s when they formed the ‘Games for Windows Live’ group.

SPOnG: Okay, well just before we go on to talk a little bit more about the game itself, can you go on to give us a quick potted history of FASA Studios?

Mitch Gitelman Oh, sure, well FASA Studio created Crimson Skies, we did Mech Assault, Mech Warrior and Mech Commander. And lots of versions of each! FASA Studio at Microsoft has been around for eight years. Before that we were FASA Interactive…. We also did quite a lot of ‘location based entertainment’ stuff as well, Battletech pods, virtual reality type things, where you get into this cockpit and play Battletech – great fun! We also did something for Disney – a virtual reality game for their theme parks.

SPOnG: Plus you mentioned earlier you did the first Xbox Live game?

Mitch Gitelman Yes, that’s right – Mech Assault.

SPOnG: So, the first Xbox Live game and now you’ve done the first Live Anywhere game!

Mitch Gitelman Yep, this is simply because we are insane! [laughs]

SPOnG: The PC version of Shadowrun is Vista-only yes?

Mitch Gitelman That’s correct, yes.

SPOnG: Why?

Mitch Gitelman Well, a couple of reasons. One is that the security on Vista is much better than the security on XP – which links into the security on Games For Windows Live… it’s very important. The other think, frankly, is that it is my job to make games that sell the platform. We’re very committed to Games For Windows and this [Shadowrun] is just us trying to lead the way.

SPOnG: In terms of the spec on your PC, what’s the kind of average/lowest spec gamers need to run Shadowrun?

Mitch Gitelman Well, you need to be able to run Vista, so take a look at those specs… but the real key is your video-card. You are going to need a pretty high end video card to get the most out of Shadowrun, as what we do, it’s really quite a technical achievement if you think about it… where you can have sixteen players that can go anywhere on the map instantly – or even choose to use the glider technology and glide over the battlefield and see the entire map at the same time – while summoning minions, or these magic crystals, or the healing tree of life and so on… while playing along with artificial intelligences… and still running at a great frame rate…that’s… hehehe… Oh! And also looking lovely and next generation at the same time… It’s a bit much! [laughs]