Interplay Entertainment

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This article is about the video game publisher. For other uses, see Interplay (disambiguation).
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Interplay Entertainment
Type Public
Traded as OTC Pink: 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)
Products MDK
Fallout
Descent
ClayFighter
Earthworm Jim
Boogerman
Revenue increase $1.38 million (2010)
Net income increase $(-1.03) million (2010)
Employees 8 (Feb 2012)
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. As developers, they are best known as the creators of the original Fallout series and as publishers they are best known for publishing Baldur's Gate and Descent. Following their acquisition by Titus Software the company nearly went bankrupt in 2004 but continued operations even after the liquidation of Titus. They ended up re-emerging following the acquisition of the Fallout IP by Bethesda Softworks in 2007 with Interplay back licensing the rights to the MMOG, Fallout Online. On December 12, 2011 the rights to Fallout Online were transferred to Bethesda Softworks following a lengthy lawsuit and subsequent settlement between Interplay and Bethesda.

Contents

[edit] History

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.

[edit] Acquisition by Titus

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[citation needed], 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]

[edit] Re-emergence

[edit] Discovery Program

Following the release of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, Interplay reportedly shut down. After which Interplay licensed the rights to create three Fallout games to Bethesda Softworks. However, in 2005 they reemerged and cancelled Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel 2. They then cancelled Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance III, possibly due to the fact that the second game in the series sales could not match the combined sales of all re-releases of the first game. They then cancelled their MMO-RTS game, Ballerium which was in development by Majorem. [10] [11] Interplay was threatened with bankruptcy and sold to Bethesda Softworks the full Fallout franchise. Interplay Fkept the rights to the Fallout MMO through a back license in April, 2007. Interplay began work on the MMO later that year. [12] [13]

Interplay then published Earthworm Jim for re-release on the Wii Virtual Console.[14] Interplay then announced that in collaboration with Masthead Studios they would continue work on Fallout Online. [15]

Interplay then licensed out to Gameloft the rights to create Earthworm Jim HD. The game was released for PC, PSN, XBLA, iOS, DSiWare and the WiiWare programs. The game was moderately successful and given fair reviews. [16] Interplay then launched its own program to publish indie development games, Interplay Discovery, through Discovery they launched their first game in years, Pinball Yeah! which was followed by Tommy Tronic. Both games were given fair reviews, but while Pinball Yeah! received moderate success, Tommy Tronic flopped. [17]

Interplay then re-released Prehistorik Man on to the DSiWare being their first direct game on the Nintendo DS, as Earthworm Jim HD was developed and published by Gameloft. The game failed to receive critical and commercial success, but it was later once again re-released on the iPhone where it achieved commercial success. Interplay's second DSiWare game was a similarly themed dinosaur game, Legendary Wars: T-Rex Rumble, it both achieved commercial success and received mixed to positive reviews. [18] [19]

Continuing their Discovery program, Interplay announced the game Death and the Fly and released the game Homesteader.[20] Interplay then revealed that they would be porting Legendary Wars: T-Rex Rumble from the DS to the iPhone and iPad. Following the release of Death and the Fly, Interplay released another Discovery title, Crazy Cats Love. [21] On January 19th, Interplay Discovery ported Crazy Cats Love on to the OnLive system while releasing Stonekeep: Bones of the Ancients on the Nintendo WiiWare. The game quickly became a top seller, but was critically panned for its graphics and confusing gameplay. [22] [23]

[edit] Bethesda vs Interplay Lawsuit

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 were 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 argued 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. [24]

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.[25] The second injunction by Bethesda was denied on 4 August 2011 by the courts.[26]

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.[27]

Bethesda then lost its appeal of the second injunction.[28] Bethesda then filed motion in limine against Interplay. Interplay then filed a motion in limine against Bethesda the day after.[29] 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.[30] The trial by court began on December 12th. In 2012, in a press conference Bethesda revealed that in exchange for 2 million dollars, Interplay gave to them full rights for Fallout Online. Interplay's rights to sell and merchandise Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout: Tactics - Brotherood of Steel will expire December 31st, 2013. While Fallout Online has been cancelled, Interplay will continue work on Project V13, but will remove any and all references to Fallout. [31]

[edit] Interplay vs Topware Lawsuit

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.

[edit] Studios

[edit] Current

  • Interplay Discovery a subdivision of Interplay aimed at publishing games made by indie developers.

[edit] Defunct

[edit] Sold

[edit] Unknown

[edit] Games

[edit] In Development

[edit] 2010's

[edit] 2000's

[edit] 1999 and prior

[edit] Cancelled

[edit] See also

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[edit] References

  1. ^ USPTO entry for the Descent game trademark (2008)
  2. ^ a b c d Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, "High Score." 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill/Osborne: Emeryville, California, 2004. p.209. ISBN 0-07-223172-6
  3. ^ Rebecca Heineman Interview. Digit Press, 2006.
  4. ^ 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).
  5. ^ Interplay Entertainment at MobyGames
  6. ^ Shay Addams. "if yr cmptr cn rd ths..." In: Computer Entertainment, August 1985, pages 24-27, 76-77.
  7. ^ June 27, 2002 12:33 PM (2002-06-27). "Information on the change of control to Titus". Frictionlessinsight.com. http://www.frictionlessinsight.com/archives/2002/06/the-saga-behind.html. Retrieved 2011-07-14. 
  8. ^ Powers, Rick (October 9, 2002). "Interplay Delisted from NASDAQ". Nintendo World Report. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/7870. Retrieved 2011-04-16. 
  9. ^ Thorsen, Tor (2003-12-08). "Interplay shuts down Black Isle Studios". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2006-06-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20060613125717/http://gamespot.com/pc/rpg/fallout3/news_6085243.html. Retrieved May 1, 2006. 
  10. ^ "Interplay's current 10-K filing". http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1057232/000117091805000379/0001170918-05-000379.txt. Retrieved 2011-07-14. 
  11. ^ Majorem's Interplay Deal Status Update[dead link]
  12. ^ "'Fallout' IP Goes To Bethesda Softworks". Totalgaming.net. 2007-04-13. http://tgnforums.stardock.com/?forumid=141&aid=150073. Retrieved 2007-04-13. 
  13. ^ iTZKooPA (2007-08-15). "Interplay Almost Out Of Debt; Searching For 'Fallout'-based MMO Funding". Totalgaming.net. http://tgnforums.stardock.com/?forumid=141&aid=160315. Retrieved 2007-08-22. 
  14. ^ Earthworm Jim Lives! Interplay Inks Deal With Creator to Relaunch the Legend from Fox Business
  15. ^ "INTERPLAY AND MASTHEAD STUDIOS FINALIZE AGREEMENT TO DEVELOP MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAME". Interplay Entertainment. 2010-01-21. http://www.interplay.com/about/article.php?id=40. Retrieved 2010-06-12. 
  16. ^ "Earthworm Jim Remastered". http://en.gameloft.ca/playstation3/earthworm-jim/?adid=117277. Retrieved 28 June 2011. 
  17. ^ "Pinball Yeah! now available for iPad/iPhone". Interplay Entertainment. 2010-10-11. http://interplay.com/about/article.php?id=53. Retrieved 2010-10-23. 
  18. ^ "Prehistorik Man flops for the DSiWare". http://ds.ign.com/articles/107/1070154p1.html. Retrieved 28 June 2011. 
  19. ^ "Legendary Wars: T-Rex Rumble Out". http://ds.ign.com/articles/110/1103392p1.html. Retrieved 28 June 2011. 
  20. ^ Interplay Discovery press release from Interplay website
  21. ^ "Legendary Wars going to the iOS". http://www.thatgamingsite.com/id812-Legendary-Wars-T-Rex-Rumble-Coming-To-iPhone-iPad.html. Retrieved 28 June 2011. 
  22. ^ "Stonekeep: Bones of the Ancients Released". http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/19/nintendoware-weekly-resident-evil-revelations-demo-stonekeep/. Retrieved 21 January 2012. 
  23. ^ "Stonekeep: Bones of the Ancients review". http://gamecola.net/2012/01/stonekeep-bones-of-the-ancestors-wii-ww/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=stonekeep-bones-of-the-ancestors-wii-ww. Retrieved 23 January 2012. 
  24. ^ "Bethesda-Fallout Lawsuit". http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/09/11/bethesda-softworks-files-lawsuit-against-interplay-over-fallout/. Retrieved 21 June 2011. 
  25. ^ "New Turn in Interplay-Bethesda Lawsuit". http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35494/Interplay_Bethesda_Knew_Fallout_MMO_Was_About_More_Than_The_Name.php. Retrieved 28 June 2011. 
  26. ^ "New Bethesda preliminary Injunction denied again". http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Ausir/Bethesda%27s_preliminary_injunction_denied_again. Retrieved 8 August 2011. 
  27. ^ "Bethesda's Restraining Order Denied". http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/37428/Bethesda_Denied_Restraining_Order_Against_Fallout_MMO.php. Retrieved 25 September 2011. 
  28. ^ Goldfarb, Andrew (October 26, 2011). "Bethesda Appeal Denied". http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1210805p1.html?_cmpid=ign40. Retrieved 29 October 2011. 
  29. ^ "Bethesda Files Motion In Limine". http://www.duckandcover.cx/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25793. Retrieved 11 November 2011. 
  30. ^ "Trial By Court Ensued". http://www.duckandcover.cx/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25796. Retrieved 11 November 2011. 
  31. ^ Fogel, Stephanie (January 9th, 2012). "Fallout MMO Cancelled". http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/09/interplay-loses-fallout-mmo/. Retrieved 10 January 2012. 
  32. ^ "14° East". MobyGames. http://www.mobygames.com/company/14-east. Retrieved April 23, 2010. 
  33. ^ "VR Sports". Answers.com. http://www.answers.com/topic/vr-sports. Retrieved July 5, 2010. 

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