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Revision as of 21:35, 12 June 2010 by Elven6 (talk | contribs) (→Re-emergence)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about the video game publisher. For other uses, see Interplay (disambiguation). | This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (June 2010) |
| File:Interplay logo.JPG | |
| Company type | Public (Template:Otcbb) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer and video games |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Headquarters | Beverly Hills, California, United States |
| Key people | Herve Caen (Chairman, CEO) Brian Fargo (Founder) |
| Products | MDK Fallout Descent ClayFighter Earthworm Jim Boogerman |
| Revenue |  $6.01 million |
| Net income | $5.86 million |
| Website | http://www.interplay.com/ |
Interplay Entertainment Corporation (Template:Otcbb) is an American video game publisher and developer.
History
The company was founded in October 1983as Interplay Productions in Southern California by Brian Fargo who became president. The first employees were the programmers Jay Patel, Troy Worrell and Bill Heineman who had previously worked with Fargo at a small video game developer called Boone Corporation.
The first projects were non-original and consisted of software conversions and even some military work for Loral Corporation.
After negotiations with Activision, Interplay entered a $100.000 contract to produce three illustrated text adventures for them. Publishd in 1984, Mindshadow, is loosely based on Robert Ludlum's Bourne Identity, and The Tracer Sanction puts the player in the role of an interplanetary secret agent. Borrowed Time which features a script by Arnie Katz' Subway Software followed in 1985. These adventures built upon work previously done by Fargo: His first game was the 1981 published Demon's Forge. Interplay's parser was developed by Fargo and an associate and in one version understands about 250 nouns and 200 verbs as well as prepositions and indirect objects. In 1986 Tass Times in Tonetown followed.
Role playing games
Interplay made a name for itself as a quality developer of role-playing games with the three-part series The Bard's Tale (1985-1988), Wasteland (1988) and Dragon Wars (1989).
Becoming a publisher
Interplay started publishing its own games, starting with Neuromancer and Battle Chess, in 1988, and then moved on to publish and distribute games from other companies, while continuing internal game development. In 1993, Interplay published the hit game Descent, developed by startup Parallax Software.
The company published several notable Star Trek games, including Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Star Trek: Judgment Rites. These games had later CD-ROM editions released with the original Star Trek cast providing voices. Interplay also published the significant Starfleet Academy and Klingon Academy games, and Starfleet Command series, beginning with Star Trek: Starfleet Command. Another game, Star Trek: Secret Of Vulcan Fury, was in development in the late 1990s, with a script written by veteran Star Trek TV writer Dorothy Fontana; however, this title was never completed and much of its staff laid off due to budgetary cuts prompted by various factors (see "Financial troubles" below). Star Trek: Secret Of Vulcan Fury was to reunite much of the cast of the original TV series with script-writer Fontana, and John Meredyth Lucas, a director and writer of several original series episodes.
In 1997, Interplay published Redneck Rampage, a first person shooter designed by Xatrix Entertainment. In the same year Interplay developed and released Fallout, a successful and critically-acclaimed role-playing game set in a retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic setting. Black Isle Studios, an in-house developer, followed with the sequel, Fallout 2, in 1998. The most successful subsequent Interplay franchise was probably Baldur's Gate, a Dungeons & Dragons game that was developed by Black Isle Studios, and which spawned a successful sequel and several expansion packs.
Over the years, Interplay's most successful titles were PC games. The company published a few notable console games, such as ClayFighter, Rock 'N Roll Racing, The Lost Vikings, and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, but Interplay was never quite able to establish a long-lasting console franchise.
Another popular franchise was the FreeSpace series.
Financial troubles
Interplay went public, with shares sold on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, in 1998, changing its name to "Interplay Entertainment Corp." The company then reported several years of losses, as titles such as Descent³ and FreeSpace 2 had lackluster sales, despite being critically acclaimed.
In 2001, French publisher Titus Interactive completed its acquisition of majority control of Interplay. Immediately afterwards, they shed most of its publisher functions and signed a long-term agreement by which Vivendi Universal would publish Interplay's games. Founder Brian Fargo eventually departed. However, Titus went through financial and legal difficulties, culminating in a close of business in 2004. Titus left many of its employees, both local and the international wholly owned developers, without redundancy or owed back-pay, and left creditors with large debts. Titus CEO Herve Caen then assumed the same capacity at Interplay.
In 2002, Interplay's shares were delisted from the NASDAQ due to the company's low share price.
On December 8, 2003, Interplay laid off the entire Black Isle Studios staff.
Shutdown
In 2004, the company was given an eviction notice by its landlord for non-payment of rent, and was briefly shut down by the California government for non-payment of workers' paychecks. This, combined with sketchy and sporadic information from Interplay representatives, led many in the game industry to speculate that Interplay had shut down. In fact, the company relocated to a small office and continued to operate, issuing occasional press releases about new publishing deals or the sale of an IP to another publisher. The company's web site shut down around this time.
In Summer 2005, the Interplay website re-launched with a logo and three links: "About Interplay", "SEC Filings/Financial", "Investor Relations".
In Interplay's 10-K SEC filing made on June 3, 2005, it was revealed under the "Internal Product Development" section that in May 2004, Interplay was forced to close all of their internal development studios due to their inability to meet their payroll obligations in a timely manner. All internally-developed titles were canceled and there are no internally-developed titles being produced. However, under "External Product Development" it was revealed that on December 31, 2004, Interplay had one title being developed by an unnamed third party developer. The title is tentatively being called Ballerium. Majorem, the apparent developer of the title, has since revealed that development of Ballerium (which was intended to be a MMO-RTS) has been suspended as the agreement that was to provide Majorem with the means to launch the title in the summer of 2005 could not be realized. Majorem also noted that this was "apparently due to Interplay's inability to raise the required funding to turn Majorem's technology into a game." Majorem is currently accepting new offers for the licensing of its MMO-RTS technology as well as its almost finished game.
In Interplay's 10-Q SEC filing made on June 21, 2005, it was revealed that under "Commitments and Contingencies" that Interplay Productions has multiple legal proceedings filed against it and has nearly USD$11 million in debt. Of interest is that Interplay received a notice from the IRS stating that they owe approximately $117,000 in payroll tax penalties and that Interplay was fined by the California Labor Board $10,000 for failure to meet payroll obligations and that an August 2005 trial date was set, and that Interplay's "general liability, auto, fiduciary liability, workers compensation and employment practices liability, have been canceled, however Interplay has entered into a new workers compensation insurance plan, Interplay is appealing a separate California Board of Labor fine of $79,000 for having lost their workers compensation plan for a period of time". Under "Contractual Obligations" it is revealed that Interplay does not have a headquarters at present because Interplay, in 2004, forfeited its lease and vacated its office space in Irvine, California.
Fallout online game
In a securities filing with the U.S. government made on November 30, 2006, an attached presentation proposed a massively multiplayer online game based on the Fallout computer game franchise, which the company previously owned and published. The presentation projected that the company would need investment of $75 million U.S. to complete the project, with production intended to begin January, 2007, and with a projected launch date of 2010. The filing did not address the proposal in the context of the company's financial debt. In April 2007, Bethesda Softworks announced that they had purchased the rights to the Fallout franchise for a reported $5.75 million. The deal made Bethesda the sole owner of the Fallout intellectual property, with Interplay becoming a licensee in order to continue pursuit of a Fallout MMO.
In Interplay's latest 8-K filing with the U.S. Government (made on April 12, 2007), an attached exhibit 10.49 has more updated information on Interplay's planned Fallout MMO. Specific requirements were stated in the agreement that if not met, Interplay would immediately forfeit its license rights for Fallout. Neither the filing nor the exhibit specifies any details of how Interplay would have started development within 24 months of April, 2007, or how it would have been able to acquire the minimum financing requirement of $30 million U.S., a seemingly-difficult task for a company in such dire financial straits.
As part of a 2007 quarterly report, Interplay CEO Herve Caen said that the company is "focused on securing funding for development of a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) based on the popular Fallout franchise."
As part of one of their 2007 quarterly reports, Interplay announced that their revenues had risen astronomically, due almost entirely to the sale of their Fallout intellectual property to Bethesda Softworks back in mid-April. With the sale and other changes, the company is now almost debt free, with its debt at a reported $3 million today, compared to the $59 million from 2001.
Re-emergence
GameSpot reported on November 13, 2007 that Interplay, using money from its sale of the Fallout IP to Bethesda Softworks, is going to restart its in-basement game development studio and Interplay has plans on developing sequels to some of its classic IPs contingent on if it can secure financing. Gamespot stated:
Among the projects Interplay has said it wants to develop are sequels to Earthworm Jim, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Descent, and MDK, provided it can find the financing.
Interplay Entertainment Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: IPLY) recently announced its earnings for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007, and its plan for the company going forward.
Near the end of March 2008, a controlling interest of stock was reportedly sold to Luxembourg based Financial Planning and Development S.A.
On April 9, 2008, Interplay confirmed that they will undertake sequels for Dark Alliance, Earthworm Jim, Descent and MDK series. They have also announced production of a Fallout MMO.
They later announced that they would support the Wii Virtual Console, with Sega Genesis (aka Mega Drive) versions of Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2, Boogerman and Clayfighter, as well as the Nintendo 64 game Clayfighter 63 1/3.
On April 22, 2008 Interplay announced that Earthworm Jim 4 is in development with original creator, Doug TenNapel, as a creative consultant. No platform or release date has been set. In addition to the new game, TenNapel will also develop a new animated series and a feature film based on the property.
On September 23, 2008 Interplay relaunched its website, announcing that Chris Taylor, another member of the original Fallout development team, has joined Jason Anderson on the team working on a game codenamed Project V13, which is assumed to be Interplay's Fallout MMORPG, however if Interplay does not produce the game by 2011, it will lose the MMO license to Bethesda.
As of 2008, Interplay's headquarters is located at 100 North Crescent Drive, Suite 324 in Beverly Hills, California according to this USPTO listing for the Descent trademark, status dated on October 21, 2008.
Interplay released a press announcement on January 21st 2010 stating an agreement has been finalised with Masthead Studios for the development on Project: V13.}}
Studios
Defunct
- BlueSky Software in California, started in 1988, closed in 2001.
- Black Isle Studios in Orange County, California, started in 1996, closed in 2003.
Sold
- Shiny Entertainment in Laguna Beach, California, founded in October 1993, acquired 1995, sold to Atari in 2002.
Unknown
- 14 Degrees East located in Beverly Hills, California, 14 Degrees was the strategy division of Interplay. The Company was founded March 3rd, 1999.
Upcoming games
See also
Template:Misplaced Pages-Books
References
- ^ USPTO entry for the Descent game trademark (2008)
- ^ Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, "High Score." 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill/Osborne: Emeryville, California, 2004. p.209. ISBN 0-07-223172-6
- Rebecca Heineman Interview. Digit Press, 2006.
- The contract was factually a 9-product deal, as each of the three adventures was targeted for three platforms: Apple II, Commodore 64 and PC (CGA).
- Interplay Entertainment at MobyGames
- Shay Addams. "if yr cmptr cn rd ths..." In: Computer Entertainment, August 1985, pages 24-27, 76-77.
- Information on the change of control to Titus
- Thorsen, Tor (2003-12-08). "Interplay shuts down Black Isle Studios". GameSpot. Retrieved May 1 2006.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help) - Interplay's current 10-K filing
- Majorem's Interplay Deal Status Update
- Interplay's current 10-Q filing
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Form 8-K, with presentation therein, November 30, 2006
Gamespot story, December 14, 2006
Next Generation story, December 12, 2006 - "'Fallout' IP Goes To Bethesda Softworks". Totalgaming.net. 2007-04-13. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
{{cite news}}:|first=missing|last=(help) - Interplay's Exhibit 10.49 attached to its April 12th, 2007 filing
- iTZKooPA (2007-08-15). "Interplay Almost Out Of Debt; Searching For 'Fallout'-based MMO Funding". Totalgaming.net. Retrieved 2007-08-22.
- Sinclair, Brendan (2007-11-13). "Interplay restarting dev studio - Company says it will make new installments of Earthworm Jim, Descent, MDK, Dark Alliance if it can get the money". Gamespot.com. Retrieved 2007-11-17.
- Interplay Releases 2007 Earnings; New Web Site Launch Imminent from Fox Business
- Interplay Sold? « Fallout 3: A Post Nuclear Blog
- Interplay returns; brings Fallout MMO from StuffWeLike.com
- Three Interplay-Owned Franchises Coming to VC from Virtual Console Reviews
- Earthworm Jim Lives! Interplay Inks Deal With Creator to Relaunch the Legend from Fox Business
- "INTERPLAY AND MASTHEAD STUDIOS FINALIZE AGREEMENT TO DEVELOP MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAME". Interplay. 2010-01-21. Retrieved 2010-06-12.
- "14° East". MobyGames. Retrieved April 23 2010.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help)
External links
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