Interplay Entertainment

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Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game and computer game publisher and developer. It has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy since mid-2004.

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History

The company was cofounded as "Interplay Productions" in Southern California in 1983 by Christopher Wells, Special Projects Manager, Educational Technology Center UC Irvine Information Computer Sciences Department with Brian Fargo, Fantasy & Role Playing Game Designer / Producer, Newport Beach, California and Iota & Associates, Dr Owen & Irene Thomas, Laguna Beach, California. Its original staff came from former employees of a small video game developer called Boone Corporation. Interplay made a name for itself as a quality computer game developer with the role-playing games The Bard's Tale and Wasteland, which were published by Electronic Arts.

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 also published a number of licensed Star Trek titles, 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. Another game, Star Trek: Secret Of Vulcan Fury, was in development in the late 1990s, with a script written by Star Trek writer Dorothy Fontana; however this title was never completed.

In 1997, Interplay released and developed Fallout, a successful and critically-acclaimed role-playing game set in a retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic setting which was followed by a sequel, Fallout 2. The most successful subsequent Interplay franchise was probably Baldur's Gate, a Dungeons & Dragons game that was developed by BioWare and published by Interplay's Black Isle Studios branch and 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.

Interplay attempted to get several of its games made into movies, notably Descent, Redneck Rampage and Fallout, but no such movies were ever made.

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. In 2002, Interplay shed most of its publisher functions and signed a long-term agreement by which Vivendi Universal would publish Interplay's games. Immediately afterwards, French publisher Titus Interactive completed its acquisition of majority control of the company, and founder Brian Fargo departed. Later in 2002, Interplay's shares were delisted from the NASDAQ due to the company's low share price.

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 latest 10-K SEC filing made on June 3 2005, it was revealed under the "Internal Product Development" section that in May of 2004, Interplay was forced to close all of their internal development studios due to their inability to meet their payroll obligations on a timely manner and that all internally developed titles were cancelled and there are no internally developed titles being developed. 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 tenatively being called Ballerium. (Source: Interplay's current 10-K filing ) 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." (Source: Majorem's Interplay Deal Status Update) Majorem is currently accepting new offers for the licensing of its MMO-RTS technology as well as its almost finished game.

In Interplay's latest 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 them. Of interest is that Interplay received a notice from the IRS stating that they owe approximately USD$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 cancelled, 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. (Source: Interplay's current 10-Q filing)

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