Whoops they did it again, Interplay on the edge of folding

[styrafoam]

I wonder if this will be as ugly as the first time around, and I wonder how many more people will get caught up in all this misery when Interplay is most likely restarted for a 3rd time in a few years.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/34900/Interplay_Details_Dire_Financial_Situation.php

 

[Skott]

I thought Interplay was no more long time back?

 

[Craig234]

Wow, only 11 employees. I remember Interplay games way back. 11 Employees and they owe 'board of directors' hundreds of thousands?

 

[wuliheron]

As they say in Hollywood, "This town will chew you up and spit you out on the sidewalk".

The entire industry is going through a shakedown. Gamers have gotten disgusted with the aggressive marketing of crappy games and now only a handful of games rake in the big bucks each year. To add insult to injury the recent snafu at Sony and the increasing popularity of portable gaming cellphones and tablets have caused consoles to loose market share as well. This time Interplay may be going down for the count.

 

[BFG10K]

They’ve should’ve made a subscription based cash-cow first and then branched out to other IP once they had stable income.

 

[wuliheron]

They’ve should’ve made a subscription based cash-cow first and then branched out to other IP once they had stable income.

People living on the edge from hand to mouth tend to be more conservative with how they spend their time and money. Not every business is meant to succeed in the long run and they all die sooner or later.

 

[Texashiker]

I would like to see Interplay remake Redneck Rampage with the Unreal engine, or lease the Valve Source engine and make an alien invasion horror game kinda like left 4 dead.

Interplay has been around for a long time. I am sad to see companies like that go downhill.

But on the other hand, it seems that the gaming industry as a whole (with a few exceptions) has gone downhill. Just look at Brink and the issues it was having with ATI cards.

Most games these days seem to be more hype then anything else.

There are some good games out there, but it seems to me that consumers are getting leery. I wonder if Interplay is a sign of things to come. First it was 3D Realms that went belly up, and now Interplay is on the edge.

 

[Barfo]

Where's my Clay Fighter sequel?

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

They’ve should’ve made a subscription based cash-cow first and then branched out to other IP once they had stable income.

They only have 7 developers... they weren't going to make any sort of subscription based cash-cow with that.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Where's the government bail out for the gaming industry? I mean, if the gaming companies all die, kids will have to...have to go outside! The horror!

Hehe...seriously tho. Interplay is a company I've always liked, so this would suck, what will probably happen though is they will get bought up by the likes of EA (or whoever it is that doesn't own them currently). The gaming industry is ready for another meltdown. It needs it.

 

[CPA]

People living on the edge from hand to mouth tend to be more conservative with how they spend their time and money. Not every business is meant to succeed in the long run and they all die sooner or later.

Yet, when the economy is sour, entertainment spending goes up. People look for a means to escape the bad news, movies, games, etc are the escape.

 

[RedBeard]

Fallout Online?

 

[wuliheron]

Yet, when the economy is sour, entertainment spending goes up. People look for a means to escape the bad news, movies, games, etc are the escape.

Yeah, but if you read my previous post you'd see that people are being more selective about what they buy. They're spending more on games, but only on a handful of winners a year. They've gotten wise to all the aggressive marketing that promises the moon and then delivers a lemon. The few developers who produce consistent winners are selling out early and everyone else has to take their chances.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Fallout Online?

i give up

 

[mmntech]

Their Macplay division was a staple for the Mac gamer in the 90s. I had forgotten they used to own Black Isles. There are rumours that the Fallout MMO is all but dead now. Leave Fallout to Obsidian. Their staff worked on the original after all.

 

[wirednuts]

i think all they have to do is relaunch the carmageddon series with a little love. they would make millions just off the sales to old farts like me who grew up on that game.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Their Macplay division was a staple for the Mac gamer in the 90s. I had forgotten they used to own Black Isles. There are rumours that the Fallout MMO is all but dead now. Leave Fallout to Obsidian. Their staff worked on the original after all.

-Yeah, except Bethesda owns Fallout now. SO MUCH FOR THAT!

 

[KaOTiK]

-Yeah, except Bethesda owns Fallout now. SO MUCH FOR THAT!

I could be wrong, but Interplay won the rights in court for a Fallout MMO.

 

[Bateluer]

-Yeah, except Bethesda owns Fallout now. SO MUCH FOR THAT!

They licensed out to Obsidian for New Vegas.

Said it before though, the entire mainstream gaming industry needs to crash and burn. Get rid of Ubi-Soft, EA, Capcom, Activation, GFWL, etc. Reboot time.

 

[Born2bwire]

I never was expecting to see anything from them. Last I heard they were just riding out on selling out their IP.

 

[styrafoam]

I could be wrong, but Interplay won the rights in court for a Fallout MMO.

They never really lost the rights to the fallout MMO. When Interplay initially sold the IP to Bethesda they asked for an outrageous amount unless they were allowed to retain rights to produce an MMO. Bethesda passed on the "with mmo" deal and allowed Interplay to produce an MMO with milestone conditions that had to be met. Bethesda eventually took interplay to court over an assortment of broken contract items, Interplay countersued. They were still going back and forth up until recently, but now it seems that it probably doesn't matter anymore. All of the investment capital seems to be gone, and it looks like there is nothing to show for it.

 

[Schadenfroh]

So, Interplay failed to find a sucker to buy them out in the hopes of a World of Fallout?

Black Isle Studios / the Interplay we loved died a long time ago.

 

[datalink7]

Who owns the Freespace franchise? Is it interplay? If so, maybe this is an opportunity for someone to snatch it up.

 

[Skott]

Kill em, put a stake through their corporate heart, and lop off their executive heads. A company that fails (bankrupt) twice should not be allowed to go on. Doesn't matter if they make games or not. I don't want to sound mean or see people lose their jobs but at this point they are just insulting the name and memory of 'Interplay'.

 

[Ross Ridge]

Interplay has been insolvent before, unable to pay it's creditors, and no one has bothered to actually go to court and force them into bankruptcy. Probably because they'd get nothing if they did. If Interplay was liquidated, after paying owed wages and back-taxes the unsecured creditors would probably get little or nothing.

I wouldn't count on this freeing up any of the intellectual property Interplay still holds. They could go back to being a zombie company, not actually doing anything, but still holding all their assets and debt.