Catalyst Game Labs

Catalyst Game Labs is a privately-held gaming company and the current licenseholder of BattleTech.

History

Catalyst Game Labs was created in May 2007 by InMediaRes Productions, LLC for the purpose of publishing print Classic BattleTech and Shadowrun sourcebooks. In June 2007, Wizkids transferred the licenses for both Classic BattleTech and Shadowrun from FanPro's United States subsidiary to Catalyst, and in June 2008, Catalyst announced new novels for Shadowrun and Classic BattleTech, as well as the MechWarrior series.

Most of the individuals involved for the success of both CBT and Shadowrun at FanPro moved to Catalyst when it acquired the licenses.

In mid-March, 2010, CGL released a public statement providing a summary of the results of a financial review of the company, in which it was disclosed strong sales and an increased demand growth of their products. Included in the review was the discovery of some accounting procedures that mixed private funds of the owner with the company's operating capital, due to "accounting procedures [that] had not been updated as the company continued to grow". The realization of this issue resulted in a reported restructuring of the accounting procedures, the start of an administrational organization review and discussions with partners and freelancers regarding indemnification.

Properties & Licenses

• Balance of Power (not yet released) - a boardgame translated from the German original, and set in 1815 Europe, where the continent tries to recover from the defeated Napoleonic campaigns using a balance of governmental, military and economic interests.

• BattleTech

• CthulhuTech - a science-fiction and horror roleplaying game, created by Wildfire LLC, that combines elements of the Cthulhu Mythos with anime-style mecha, horror, magic and futuristic action. It is set on Earth in the year 2085 during a worldwide conflict known as the Aeon War.

• Eclipse Phase - an RPG set in Earth’s far distant future, when humanity has achieved immortality by abandoning the need for physical bodies and transforming brain patterns into digital information. As a result, characters can change their bodies at will and always have a “backup copy” ready to deploy in case of “death.”

• Ergo - a card game where players uses familiar logical operators like ‘Not’, ‘And’, ‘Or’, ‘If-Then’ to prove they exist and that their opponents don’t.

• High School Drama (not yet released) - a roleplaying game where players take on the roll of a high school student trying to hookup with other students and clubs.

• Leviathans - a miniatures game about lighter-than-air battleships. Subtitled “The Battle of Air Titans”, the game is set in an alternative version of the early 20th century.

• Merchants - a resource management game translated from from the German original and set in the 16th century, with players operating tall-ships for some Old World trading.

• Ooze the Cook - a light-hearted “beer and pretzels” game where up to four players take on the roles of slimes and jellies living in a tavern, trying to grow large enough to eat the tavern’s patrons and cook. The game features several random elements meant to symbolize the Oozes’ lack of cognitive thinking.

• Paparazzi! (not yet released)- a card game casting players as celebrity-hounding paparazzi, competing with each other to take the best pictures of the biggest (and most controversial) stars in Hollywood.

• Poo - a card game for two to eight players.

• Shadowrun - a roleplaying game set in the dystopian near-future of 2070, where huge corporations control the lives of their employees and the return of magic has altered people, politics and power. When conflicts arise the corporations, governments, wealthy individuals and even organized crime can subcontract their dirty work to specialists, who then perform "shadowruns" - corporate espionage missions undertaken for pay.

External links

• Company Web Site