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Interplay Forced to Liquidate (France) 219

Posted by CowboyNeal from the end-has-come-for-thee dept.
genrader writes "Voodoo Extreme is reporting that Interplay has had judicial liquidation take place. If you've been reading the gaming news, a lot has been going on with Interplay financially, it seems all this finally caught up to them. Interplay has formerly published very well known games like Icewind Dale, the Baldur's Gate series, and Descent. Farewell, Interplay." Update: 01/06 02:57 GMT by H : This affects just the company in France; sorry for the confusion.
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Interplay Forced to Liquidate (France) More

Interplay Forced to Liquidate (France)

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  • Still Alive? (Score:5, Informative)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:13PM (#11271608) Homepage
    There is an update in that article which clearly stated "I mailed you earlier about Interplay probably being dead, it turns out they're still alive (sorry about that), Titus have been liquidated but it only affects companies based in France, which doesn't include Interplay."

    Was the article submitted and checked before the update, or is Interplay still considered dead regardless?

  • Good Riddance (Score:3, Informative)

    by tonsofpcs ( 687961 ) <slashback@NOSPAm.tonsofpcs.com> on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:13PM (#11271609) Homepage Journal
    Interplay never supported their products well anyway.

  • EA (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:14PM (#11271617)
    Well atleast they didnt get bought by EA.

  • So they're bankrupt... (Score:3, Funny)

    by nxtr ( 813179 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:15PM (#11271621)
    ...does that mean they'll be releasing keygens for all their games?
  • However, my question to you, the readers of slashdot, is...

    How do you think they could have avoided this?

    Discuss.

  • It was unavoidable (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rorschach1 ( 174480 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:18PM (#11271641) Homepage
    I could have told you years ago that this was going to happen. Why? Because I own Interplay stock. It's the kiss of death, me owning one share in a company. Want to make sure your biotech firm doesn't get FDA approval for their new product? Just have me by some stock. Really. Look at Advanced Tissue Sciences. See that 50% drop? Two days after I bought it. That was all me, baby. /sticking to my boring 401(k) from now on...
    • I bought some RedHat stock recently because I thought it wouldn't fall any lower than it was. Guess what, the week after it was 30% less. Luckily I didn't invest much there. So I'm kind of wary of buying their stock now. I don't know them to go out of business, which is something that will happen if I buy their stock four or five times.
      • If you thought it was a good investment at $x, then you should think that it's a great investment at $.7x. Don't invest in companies because they won't get any lower; invest in them because you believe that they have sound business fundamentals and will grow in the future.
    • Pls. post the stocks that you are about to buy here on slashdot.

      Thanks,
      steadph

    • Go get some Infinium Labs and SCO shares.
    • Microsoft stock and stock in each of the companies listed here: http://www.riaa.com/about/members/default.asp
    • kitco.com

      dude, stocks are scam, buy euros, your dollar is toast, you cannot create 600billion in extra slush, and not see 8-20% devaluation yearly. So get out of the cycle, buy euros or gold or a mix.

      • British Pounds are even stronger yet. In both exchange and actual purchasing power. Sterling British Pounds, the only way to fight the Bush Economy.
      • Except he should have done that about a year ago when $1 was 1.2 Euro.

        By the way, the dollar is not going to stay down for long (6 more months, then it's flipside again)

        It's you euro holders who should be bying dollars, you're getting a great deal.

        People in America barely understand the us economy. What makes you think europeans/asians understand it any better?

        Yes. A strong dollar is what the US needs to import, and a weak dollar is what the US needs for exports. Also, it stems the flow of immigrants.

        I
      • how would an american get ahold of euros? Open a swiss bank account? Or are there better ways?
        • Talk to your local investment firm. Buying foreign currency is a fairly common investment, although it can be risky. I'm sure they'd be able to help you out, either by handling the transaction or pointing you to someone who can.

          However, this is probably the dumbest possible time to buy euros. Remember, you want to buy low and sell high. Right now the euro is high. That's your indicator to sell, not to buy. Buying after it's already gone up 50% with the hope that it might continue is a bad bet.
    • Have you tried short selling?
    • SCOX [yahoo.com]?

      I think I speak for many Linux users when I say, "Thanks, Rorshcach1!"

    • You have a special and unique gift Rorschach. Use it in a humanitarian manner and *gasp* buy some Microsoft stock.

      That would suck tho if they didn't go under after that however, as you would just end up helping them out.

      • You have a special and unique gift Rorschach. Use it in a humanitarian manner and *gasp* buy some Microsoft stock.

        That would suck tho if they didn't go under after that however, as you would just end up helping them out.

        Ummm...no. Buying a company's stock doesn't help them unless you buy it at their IPO. When you buy stock, you are buying the company itself--you own part of it--from someone who had bought it before and thus are entitled to a vote in how that company is run (including for its director

  • the pirates I tell you, arrrg. Actually, I'm trying to remember a game I played by them, I know I can google or go to their website. I think the big hype game was SACRIFICE, I bought it, played it & ho hum. didnt't live up to the reviews IMHO.
    • "Actually, I'm trying to remember a game I played by them,"

      If you didn't play any of the Fallout series, then you missed a treat (apart from 'Tactics', which was very disappointing). I was also very pleased with Planescape:Torment and the Baldur's/Icewind Dale games, even though the latter got extremely formulaic.

  • End of an Era (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:19PM (#11271649)
    So many games over the past several years to come from their halls.
    A few the poster didn't mention:

    Alone in the dark series,
    Fallout,
    Planescape Torment,
    Kingpin: Life of crime,
    Carmageddon,
    Giants: Citizen Kabuto,
    Sacrifice,
    Dungeon Master,
    MDK,
    etc
    • I think the very first game I ever bought for myself was an Interplay title: Battle Chess [pcworld.com]

      That game was fun to watch. Painfully slow, but really fun to watch.


    • So many games over the past several years to come from their halls.
      A few the poster didn't mention:

      Alone in the dark series,
      Fallout,

      Luckily, Interplay is just a publisher and the developers (Bioware, Planet Moon, Shiny, etc) of most of those games are still doing just fine.
    • Even on their website they don't have anything regarding Klingon Academy [ign.com] but it was an awesome game. At startup it says Interplay so they obviously did quite a bit of work on it.

  • From TFA:

    Update: Duck and Cover takes cover as they debunk their own story:

    I mailed you earlier about Interplay probably being dead, it turns out they're still alive (sorry about that), Titus have been liquidated but it only affects companies based in France, which doesn't include Interplay.

    So. Apparently this story is now meaningless.

  • From the archives of Interplay (Score:3, Informative)

    by Hawerchuk was money ( 787794 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:21PM (#11271665) Journal
    I'm not sure how wide the popular appeal of the game was, but an Interplay game I found realy cool was the Star Trek: 25th Anniversary game.

    It was a puzzle game that wasn't the most slick game of all time, but it featured much of the original cast as voice actors which gave the game an incredible appeal. Does anyone else have an sleeper Interplay games that they thought was pretty decent?
    • I actually had that game on a few floppy disks from a garage sale back in the mid 90's, I never got it to work though.
    • I've always been fond of the three Redneck Rampage games. Granted, the clipping was so bad that when somebody died and fell behind something an arm might stick through, but the games were so surrealistic that it just added to the effect. Besides, I always liked the weapons: crossbows with dynamite taped to the quarrels, the ripsaw throwing buzzsaw blades like frizbees and the ever-popular tit-guns. The chicken crossbow quarrels were funny too, but a tad unreliable...
    • The sequel to 25th Anniversary, "Judgement Rites", was a very, very good adventure game. It took a looooooong while for the next decent Star Trek game to appear (even though many tried).

      And, of course, "Planescape: Torment" was simply awesome, the best RPG ever made.

    • actually one of my favorite PC games of all time. The graphics weren't great, but it was all about the game-play and storyline. Judgement Rites was great too.
      • to append to my own post...

        I was one of those people who kept pestering Interplay on their development of Secret of Vulcan Fury which was shelved back around '99 or 2000 when Interplay started to kill off projects. If they really started to liquidate Interplay I'd make a bid to grab the source for that game. Even if it's unplayable it'd be important to archive the last work that DeForest Kelley.

    • Out of This World, Flashback, and Future Wars were all great games for their time.

      Future Wars was developed by Delphine Cinematique though so I don't know that it counts.

  • a close call (Score:5, Funny)

    by NewtonsLaw ( 409638 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:22PM (#11271671)
    Phew, almost "GAME OVER" -- but saved by Slashdot's bad editing :-)
  • I can't believe the publishers of Descent are gone. That game was revolutionary. On the other hand, the low popularity of such an amazing game can only be blamed on a bad publisher.
    • Yeah, I love Descent I & II.. but Descent III was such utter crap :(
    • though, losing a publisher is not much lost.

      just some trademarks and game copyrights end up in a limbo in worst case.

      (and such things as "fallout" getting into limbo wouldn't really matter. it's not the name that makes those things great and rememberable, it's the atmosphere, the plot, the fun! and all of those can be replicated under a different name. hell, fallout itself owes a lot to one old post-apocalyptic rpg)

    • Speaking of Descent, do you happen to know if you can get sound working with DII and Windows XP or if XP's stingyness with the hardware and DOS programs will prevent that?
      • Your best bet is trying out D2X [icculus.org]. The audio problem is due to being very DOS specific even the Win32 with mouse support version used audio through DOS.
        • Dude, thanks.

          Another solution I discovered (though it doesn't work as well, at least for me) is to get VDMSound. It's an emulator that will give you a virtual sound card in dos programs. I've tried it in two of them and it works decently.
  • They also published this game where you control three vikings, one at a time, each having different skills. And you have to get them all through to the end of each stage to continue. I got up to one of the last levels, possibly even the last one, when I either hit a dead-end, got bored or a life (can't remember which). But I still remember the password to jump back to that level though: "MSTR". Sad...

  • Out of this World (Score:3, Interesting)

    by eMartin ( 210973 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:28PM (#11271719)
    ...published very well known games like Icewind Dale, the Baldur's Gate series, and Descent. Farewell, Interplay.

    There was also a not so well known game called "Out of this World" which is still one of my favorite games. I just played through it again a few weeks ago.

    http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/p,2/gameId,5 64 /
    • That game was brutal on SNES, at least to me, at the time. I had no idea it was released for other systems as well.
  • They will be after the slashdotting of their server. Probably the most attention they've had in years :-)

    ---

    Yeah, I do it for the attention [blogspot.com] ;-)

  • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • ...is what they will do with the Freespace license.
    (Its been discussed here before [slashdot.org].
  • ...turned into "Buh-bye, Gamers(tm)".
  • Even though this article is now irrelevant and my post is off-topic here is a refresher on some Interplay games. They also had the Star Trek license for a while and made that ST:25th Anniversary adventure/puzzle type game that someone else already mentioned.

    These results are culled from GameRankings.com

    1. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn PC
    2. Baldur's Gate
    3. Fallout
    4. FreeSpace 2
    5. Planescape: Torment
    6. Realms of the Haunting
    7. Alone in the Dark
    8. Icewind Dale: The Ultimate Collection
    9. Sacri
    • All those are big ones for sure, but the Descent series(not to be confused with the Freespace series) equally deserves to be in the top 10. That series had a lot of FPS firsts. I have yet to find a FPS quite like it since the license got shelved when Outrage and Volition(formally the two companies were Parallax) moved to THQ thus putting the Descent(and Freespace) license into Limbo. :(

      Both Freespace and Descent are games that truly deserve sequels as both series were excellent. I personally put Desce
    • Seems to me Atari had a revival as well. Maybe this is not the last of Interplay. Sure hope not - I bought a lot of their games and liked em all.

  • Farewell, Interplay

    ...ummm, they are NOT faring well, nor does it sound like they will.

  • Descent rocked (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nighty5 ( 615965 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @11:00PM (#11271943)
    My best memories of Interplay would be playing Descent. That game absolutely rocked, it was one of the first games that convinced me to buy a joystick - no other game had succedded earlier.

    I remember even having problems configuring the joystick, took me days to work out to manually set a jumper on my sound card to enable the joystick port.

    Did anybody like me actually edit any maps? The map editing made doom editing feel like playing with playdough. I remember printing out the manual which was enormous and was written by a russian but decided to write it in english because of the bigger audience.

    I remember some people suffered motion sickness more in this game than any other.

  • d2x (Score:3, Interesting)

    by slapout ( 93640 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @11:01PM (#11271949)
    The sources to Descent 1 & 2 were released several years ago. The Descent 2 code is being worked on in a project called d2x. http://www.icculus.org/d2x/ [icculus.org] I'm trying to find a copy of Descent 2 so I can use the data files with it. Does anyone know if it's still available? I've googled for the shareware version, but couldn't find much. (I found it at descent2.com but i couldn't get the download to finish.)

  • Interplay Forced to Liquidate (France) (Score:5, Funny)

    by ddent ( 166525 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @11:01PM (#11271952) Homepage
    What? Interplay is liquidating France??? What is the world coming to?

  • Interplay Investors (Score:3, Informative)

    by MiceHead ( 723398 ) * on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @11:16PM (#11272029) Homepage
    I believe that Interplay lost its IPLY ticker symbol sometime around December, 2002, and was downgraded(?) to IPLY.OB. Given the way things are going, it's clear why we're hearing plenty of liquidation rumors, even if they're still hanging in there. I have been following their stock for some time; here's a depressing scene:

    (Year - Price)
    Q1, 2000 - ~$3.75
    Q1, 2001 - ~$2.75
    Q1, 2002 - ~$0.60
    Q1, 2003 - ~$0.07 (Then changed to IPLY.OB)
    Q1, 2004 - ~$0.10
    Q1, 2005 - ~$0.01

    The price, as of today, was 1.6 cents per share, (which is actually a nice purchase, if they pull out of their rut). Contrary to what the /. post says, they haven't liquidated yet. However:

    LOS ANGELES, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Video game company Interplay Entertainment Corp. (IPLYE.OB: Quote, Profile, Research) did not pay most of its employees for the four months through mid-November, has no cash reserves left and cannot meet its obligations, the company said in a quarterly report to regulators on Wednesday.
    I suppose they could raise capital by issuing more stock -- only 1,000,000,000 shares, and they could have a cool $16M! (Okay, maybe not.)

    I'm not sure what IP assets they have left to liquidate, but such sales may breathe new life into properties that have not been celebrated since (say) 2002 [mobygames.com].
    ____________________________
    Inago Rage [inagorage.com] - Fight, fly, and create your own arenas in this first-person shooter.

  • The Wise Alundo prophesied this! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Magickcat ( 768797 ) * on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @11:25PM (#11272088)
    "The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos shall be sown from their passage. So Sayeth the Wise Alaundo."

    The "Lord of Murder" is clearly Interplay France.
    The "score of mortal progeny" are the former Interplay employees.
    Finally, the "Chaos" will be Electronic Arts churning out crud games.
  • All I could think was "Oh not again."

    They probably didn't even get a chance to man the Maginot Line this time...

  • Interplay Liquidates France (Score:3, Funny)

    by Wingie ( 554272 ) <wlmui&amherst,edu> on Thursday January 06, 2005 @01:48AM (#11272914) Homepage
    I thought the story was about a game company destroying a European nation with lasers! How disappointing.
  • I'd really like to see a remake of that game. All the new 3D technology could make it a lot of fun.

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