FireTeam, released in December, could well be the last game Multitude releases.

　　That's because Multitude is changing its focus from developing games to developing the technology that it used in its game.

　　Multitude's Loretta Stagnitto explains: "We are a venture-funded company. And since we released FireTeam, we have continued searching for investment money. We've attracted a lot of interest to our product - FireTeam - but we've attracted more interest in the technology we've developed. As a small company with a single product, it is hard to develop successful brand recognition for the game. So we plan to change our focus from that of a game developer to that of a technology provider."

　　The company is still negotiating for funding, so Stagnitto declined to unveil specifics about its plans, but she did say that Multitude will be concentrating on developing its Team Talk voice-over-the-Internet technology and applications for that technology.

　　The team-oriented multiplayer title has garnered an audience of close to 1500 over the course of its beta test and since its release. The game is currently for sale only via Multitude's web site. Stagnitto said that Multitude's original plan was to bring FireTeam to retail and market the game itself, but as the company got closer and closer to launching the game, it realized "though our core competency is game design, we have created a really interesting technology." Stagnitto asserts that the beta-testing that the company has done with FireTeam has put it ahead of other companies developing similar sorts of voice-over-the-Net technologies.

　　Multitude doesn't plan to abandon its FireTeam fans, however. "We'll continue to support the users and the community that has developed," Stagnitto said, "and we hope a licensing deal for the title will soon come to fruition, at which time we'll make a formal announcement concerning the life of FireTeam and the future direction of Multitude."