| Type | Public (OTC Markets Group: IPLY) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer and video games |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Founder(s) | Brian Fargo |
| Headquarters | Beverly Hills, California[1], United States |
| Key people | Herve Caen (Chairman and CEO) Eric Caen (President) |
| Products | MDK Fallout Descent ClayFighter Earthworm Jim Boogerman |
| Revenue | $1.38 million (2010) |
| Net income | $(-1.03) million (2010) |
| Employees | 11 (Dec 2010) |
| Website | http://www.interplay.com/ |
Interplay Entertainment Corporation (OTC Markets Group: IPLY) is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed to Interplay Entertainment in 1998 and became public. It gained success for developing and publishing hit games such as Fallout and Baldur's Gate, the latter which turned out to be their best selling game. Due to its financial losses, French publisher Titus Interactive completed its acquisition of majority control of the company and caused founder Brian Fargo to resign and depart in 2002. In 2003, Interplay shut down Black Isle Studios and laid off the entire staff, until the company was shut down in 2004 for the eviction notice. When Titus shut down in 2005, Interplay once again became independent. In 2007, Interplay restarted its in-house game development studio and plans on developing sequels to some of its classic IPs contingent, after Fallout was sold to Bethesda Softworks.
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The company was founded in October 1983[2] as Interplay Productions in Southern California with Brian Fargo as CEO. 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.[3]
The first projects were non-original and consisted of software conversions and even some military work for Loral Corporation.[2]
After negotiations with Activision, Interplay entered a $100,000 contract to produce three illustrated text adventures for them.[2] Published 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.[4] These adventures built upon work previously done by Fargo: His first game was the 1981 published Demon's Forge.[2][5] 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.[6] In 1986 Tass Times in Tonetown followed.
Interplay made a name for itself as a quality developer of role-playing video games with the three-part series The Bard's Tale (1985–1988), Wasteland (1988) and Dragon Wars (1989).
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 1995, 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 video 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 BioWare, and which spawned a successful expansion, sequel and spin-off series. The spin-off series started with Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance the game's success forged a sequel as well. Dark Alliance is often credited as Interplay's most successful console game. However, Interplay's most successful titles were PC games. Aside from Dark Alliance, Interplay published a few notable console series such as Earthworm Jim and ClayFighter.
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 Descent 3 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 as Titus had changed Interplay's main focus from PC Gaming to Console Gaming.[7] However, Titus went through financial and legal difficulties, culminating in a close of business in 2005 after unsuccessfully trying to sell Interplay. 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.[8]
On December 8, 2003, Interplay laid off the entire Black Isle Studios staff.[9]
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.[10] 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."[11] Majorem is currently accepting new offers for the licensing of its MMO-RTS technology as well as its almost finished game. As revealed by Chris Taylor, after canceling Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel 2, Interplay's main team began working on Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 3. This game was presumably canceled before Interplay temporarily shut down or when Interplay was unimpressed by Dark Alliance 2's sales.
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.[12]
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.[13][14][15] 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.[16]
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.[17] 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.[18]
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-house 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.[19] | ” |
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.[20]
Near the end of March 2008, a controlling interest of stock was reportedly sold to Luxembourg based Financial Planning and Development S.A.[21]
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.[22]
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. To help fund the game, Interplay licensed its titles to various publishers for re-release on the Wii Virtual Console.[23]
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 start development of 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.[1]
Interplay released a press announcement on January 21, 2010 stating an agreement has been finalized with Masthead Studios for the development on Project: V13.[24]
In co-operation with Gameloft, Interplay released Earthworm Jim HD. A remake of the original Earthworm Jim featuring new graphics, gameplay and graphics. It was released for the PC, PSN, XBLA, iOS, DSiWare and WiiWare. The game was, however, given fair reviews and was only moderately successful.[25] Interplay then released their first direct DSiWare game, as Earthworm Jim was developed and licensed by Gameloft. The game was a remake of Prehistorik Man. It game was a direct port of the Gameboy Advance version of Titus' original game. The game received moderate success and was given negative reviews.[26] Interplay's second DSiWare game was a similarly themed dinosaur game, this game, however, was developed by the Interplay team directly and was not a platformer but a Real-Time Strategy, it was also Interplay's first original release since their re-emergence. It was credited as being the first True RTS to be released on the DS. The game sold well and was given positive reviews.[27]
As part of their re-emergence Interplay launched Interplay Discovery, a publishing program aimed at independent developers. Upon launch they announced two games: Tommy Tronic and Pinball Yeah. They released Pinball Yeah for the iPhone and iPad on October 9, 2010.[28] They then announced the gothic game Death and the Fly with a 2011 projected release.[29] Homesteader was the fourth title announced to be released through the Interplay discovery program. Interplay then revealed that they would be porting Legendary Wars: T-Rex Rumble from the DS to the iPhone and iPad.[30]
Bethesda sued Interplay on September 8, 2009 regarding the Fallout Online license and selling of Fallout Trilogy and sought an injunction to stop development of Fallout Online and sales of Fallout Trilogy. Key points that Bethesda are trying to argue is that Interplay did not have the right to sell Fallout Trilogy on the Internet via Steam, Good Old Games or other online services. Bethesda also said that "full scale" development on Fallout Online was not met and that the minimum financing of 30 million of "secured funding" was not met. Interplay launched a counter suit claiming that Bethesda's claims were meritless and that it did have the right to sell Fallout Trilogy via online stores via its contract with Bethesda. Interplay also claimed secure funding had been met and the game was in full scale development by the cut off date. Interplay also hopes to have the second contract that sold Fallout voided which would result in the 1st contract that licensed Fallout to come back into effect. This would mean that Fallout would revert back to Interplay. Bethesda would be allowed to make Fallout 5. Bethesda would also have to pay 12% of royalties on Fallout 3, New Vegas, Fallout 5 and expansions plus interest on the money owed. On December 10, 2009 Bethesda lost the first injunction. The lawsuit is currently ongoing.[31]
Bethesda shortly afterword tried a new tactic and fired its 1st lawyer, replacing him and filing a 2nd injunction. This one claimed that Bethesda had only back licensed the name Fallout but no content (aka you can not use any fallout settings, monsters, locations, lore, stories, pip boy etc, etc) Interplay has countered showing that the contract states that they must make Fallout Online that has the look and feel of Fallout and that in the event Interplay fails to meet the requirements (30 million minimum secure funding and "full scale" development by X date) that Interplay can still release the MMO but they have to remove all Fallout content. The contract then goes on to list all Fallout content as locations, monsters, settings, lore, etc etc. Bethesda has known that Interplay would use Fallout elements via internet emails shown in court documents and that the contract was not just for the name.[32] The second injunction by Bethesda was denied on 4 August 2011 by the courts.[33]
Bethesda then appealed the denial of their second preliminary injunction. Bethesda then sued Masthead Studios and asked for a restraining order against the company. Bethesda was denied this restraining order before Masthead Studios could call a counter-suit.[34]
Bethesda then lost its appeal of the second injunction.[35] Bethesda then filed motion in limine against Interplay. Interplay then filed a motion in limine against Bethesda the day after.[36] Shortly after, the trial by jury which Bethesda requested on October 26, 2010 was changed to a trial by court because the APA contract (aka the 2nd contract that sold Fallout to Bethesda) stated that all legal matters would be resolved via a trial by court and not a trial by jury.[37] The trial by court began on Dec 12, 2011.
Topware Interactive revealed that they were developing a game called Battle vs. Chess to be published by South Peak Interactive. Interplay sued them and won an injunction to stop sales in the United States. The lawsuit goes to court the Summer of 2012.
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