Dear Visitor,

For almost the last two years, we, the Directors of Federation Studios have
given ourselves completely to the betterment of this network and to the
gaming community. We've been completely unselfish with our time and money,
and have sacrificed a lot for all of our hosted sites and visitors.

However, as we have grown older, it has become increasing difficult for us
to maintain that level of unselfishness. In the last year alone we've spent
over $1600 dollars, collectively, to pay for this network. OUR lives have
changed dramatically since we set out to design this network and as a result
of those changes we can no longer afford to continue to spend such large
amounts of money on something that doesn't give anything in return. Aside
from the money, we've also spent thousands of hours of our time towards this
network, something that in our current situation we cannot continue to do so
if we're to meet our future personal goals.

For the last two years we've done what was best for this network, but now it
is time to do what is best for us.

It is because of this, and with a heavy heart, that we have unanimously
decided to close Federation Studios. We do not make this decision lightly,
as we have never made any major decision for this network without great
thought. This decision is made after deep reflection, communication with
close friends and with each other. It is one of the most difficult decisions
that we've ever had to make in our lives, but it is one that must be made.

We realize that this decision leaves many of you out to dry. We realize that
there are many of you - visitors, staff members, webmasters, and others -
who depend on us. We realize that we're letting all of you down immensely,
and that you're probably very upset by our decision, and we understand your
pain.

Where Federation Studios has ended, others will carry on. It will be
difficult at first, for all of us, but we have faith in this community, and
we are sure that our work, our goal, and our message of a professional
modding community will continue to endure, even in our absence. If we're
still dedicated to our goals, then why not turn over Federation Studios to
someone else, you may ask. Simply, because we the creators feel that we just
could not in good conscience do so. Federation Studios started as, and has
always been, an endeavor of friends, and turning over the site and network
to someone else would be like turning over our friendship. We cannot, and
will not, do that.

Our server FTP is still running, so that sites may retrieve their
content, but it will only remain up for a couple more weeks until our
contract with Rackshack runs out. Unfortunately, due to the nature of our
current server problems, we will be unable to retrieve the MySQL databases.
We apologize for this loss of data, but we have no ability to retrieve that data.

And so, as we look towards the future, we do so with great uncertainty, but
we also do so with hope. Again, we are greatly sorry for any effect this
decision may have on you, but this is a decision we must make.

Respectfully:
The Federation Studios founders,
-- Marshalus, Gaijin, and Quatre