From:	MC23 <mc23@**********.COM>
Subject:	State of the Industry
Date:	Fri, 5 Feb 1999 11:34:17 -0500

From the Pyramid website

FASA Discontinues Earthdawn Line

FASA Corporation has announced it will officially cease production
on the Earthdawn line.

Jill Lucas, President of FASA, said, "It was time to make some
hard decisions. Earlier in 1998, FASA sent out 80,000 free copies of the
core rules on CD-ROM, and though the sales jumped considerably in
response, they were still not at the level that FASA felt they needed to
be to continue production. Earthdawn has had a healthy run, but as with
most things, there comes a time when you must move on."

It has been many months since anything new for Earthdawn was
published. With the recent sale of FASA Interactive to Microsoft, and
with it the rights to all FASA game titles (including Earthdawn), FASA
gave up trying to find a buyer for the game line and existing stock.

"FASA believes that our customers are entitled to the best product
we can produce for every game line, and with two new lines being released
in 1999, we felt we could not give Earthdawn the kind of continuing
attention it and the players deserved. The products already available,
however, were designed to give players a strong foundation on which to
build continuing adventures," said Rett Kipp, marketing manager.

Introduced in 1993, Earthdawn is a fantasy roleplaying game set in
an ancient age of magic. As humanity emerges from a self-imposed
imprisonment in underground shelters, they must fight the remnants of the
Horrors, creatures from astral space that have ravaged the earth. Heroes
re-explore their world, hoping to reclaim it from the devastation wrought
by the centuries-long Scourge.

FASA still plans to support Earthdawn and its fans. To help
players and gamemasters round out their campaigns, FASA is exploring the
possibility of publishing the completed Dragons sourcebook and the
remaining novels on-line.

FASA will also continue to offer Earthdawn products for several
more months to give fans the opportunity to complete their collections.