Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an Americanvideo game developer andpublisher based inLos Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 asInterplay Productions by developersBrian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, andRebecca Heineman, as well as investor Chris Wells. As a developer, Interplay is best known as the creator of theFallout series and as a publisher for theBaldur's Gate andDescent series.
The logo used for Interplay Productions on the cover ofWasteland; Brian Fargo stated that the logo was intended to resemble a person seated in front of a keyboard.[1]
Prior to Interplay, the company's founding developers—Brian Fargo, Troy Worrell, Jay Patel, andRebecca Heineman—worked for Boone Corporation, avideo game developer based inCalifornia.[2] When Boone eventually folded, the four got together with investor Chris Wells and, believing they could create a company that was better than Boone, founded Interplay in October 1983.[2][3][4] The first projects were non-original and consisted of software conversions and even some military work forLoral Corporation.[5] After negotiations withActivision, Interplay entered aUS$100,000 contract to produce three illustratedtext adventures for them.[6][5] Published in 1984,Mindshadow is loosely based onRobert Ludlum'sBourne Identity whileThe Tracer Sanction puts the player in the role of an interplanetary secret agent.Borrowed Time which features a script by Arnie Katz'sSubway Software followed in 1985. These adventures built upon work previously done by Fargo; his first game was the 1981-publishedDemon's Forge.[5]
The same year, Interplay Productions, then contracted out by Electronic Arts, ported EA'sRacing Destruction Set to theAtari 8-bit computers. The conversion, entirely coded byRebecca Heineman, was released in 1986 via Electronic Arts for the United States and Ariolasoft for the European market.
During the early 1990s, Fargo served as an advisor to Silicon & Synapse, which would ultimately becomeBlizzard Entertainment. In exchange for 10% equity in the company, Fargo contracted Silicon & Synapse toport games developed by Interplay onto other consoles, providing the studio with its initial funding to support its transition to making original games.[8]
In 1997, Interplay developed and releasedFallout, a successful and critically acclaimed role-playing video game set in aretro-futuristic post-apocalyptic setting.Black Isle Studios, a newly created in-house developer, followed with the sequel,Fallout 2, in 1998. Another successful subsequent Interplay franchise wasBaldur's Gate, aDungeons & Dragons game that was developed byBioWare and which spawned a successful expansion, sequel and spin-off series. The spin-off series started withBaldur's Gate: Dark Alliance; the game's success forged a sequel as well. Aside fromDark Alliance, Interplay published a few notable console series such asLoaded and the fighting game seriesClayFighter and the games byShiny Entertainment,MDK andWild 9.[9][citation needed]
Rebranding as Interplay Entertainment, Titus minority acquisition (1998–2002)
In 1998, Interplay's financial issues became dire. To avert bankruptcy, Interplay went public on theNASDAQ stock exchange under the name Interplay Entertainment.[10]
By 1999, Interplay continued to endure losses under Brian Fargo due to increased competition, less-than-stellar returns on Interplay's sports division, and the lack of console titles. Because of this, the company forced itself to seek additional funding from an outside third party. On February 17, 1999, the company entered into a distribution agreement with British game publisherVirgin Interactive, where Interplay would acquire a 43.9% stake (initially a 49.9% stake) in the company and allow Virgin to exclusively distribute their titles in Europe, effectively replacing Interplay's own distribution arm in the region. Interplay also announced that they would distribute Virgin Interactive's titles in North America and several other territories including South America and Japan.[11][12] On March 23, 1999, it was announced that the Paris-basedTitus Interactive had invested $10 million in the publisher with a considered chance of purchasingUniversal Pictures' stake in Interplay, which would allow Titus to own 34% of the company's shares and allow for Interplay to distribute Titus' products in North America.[13] By May, $25 million was invested by Titus, which within a few months was increased by another $10 million.[14] By August, Titus owned 57% of Interplay's shares.[15]
On 16 April 2001, Titus announced they had expanded their control shares in Interplay to 72.5%. On the same day, they announced they had purchased Interplay's stake in Virgin Interactive, effectively making the latter a fully owned subsidiary of Titus, which was to allow the three companies to simplify their European distribution arms under the singular Virgin Interactive umbrella.[16] On August 28, Titus announced that they had appointedVivendi Universal Publishing as Interplay's North American distributor in order for Interplay to focus more on development. Prior to this, Titus resecured full distribution rights to its titles in North America, which were not counted for as part of the Vivendi Universal deal.[17] On September 27, Interplay announced thatBaldur's Gate: Dark Alliance andGiants: Citizen Kabuto would become the first titles under the new agreement.[18] On November 29, 2001,BioWare announced that they had ended their partnership with Interplay, citing unpaid royalties and Titus sublicensing distribution to third-parties for the reason.[19] BioWare tookNeverwinter Nights with them, withInfogrames purchasing worldwide publishing rights to the title in January 2002, while BioWare eventually reconsidered with Interplay.[20]
On January 24, 2002, Interplay founder and CEO Brian Fargo resigned from the company, following Interplay's failed move to expand to console gaming as well as conflictions with Titus Interactive.[21][22] He later went on to foundInXile Entertainment. Titus' co-founder Hervé Caen took over as Interplay's new CEO and began a range of several unpopular but arguably necessary decisions to cancel various projects, in order to save the company. In April 2002, the company soldShiny Entertainment toInfogrames for $47 million, which at turn also included anupcoming video game based onThe Matrix as well as the video game rights to the property transferring over.[23] Due to a low share price, Interplay's shares were delisted from the NASDAQ in 2002 and now trade on the over the counter (OTC) market.[24]
The company continued to struggle throughout 2003 following an assortment of poorly-selling console titles. On September 29, 2003, the company was entered into a lawsuit withVivendi Universal over alleged breaches of their partnership and a failure of payment. This led to Interplay ending their North American distribution deal withVivendi Universal Games.[25] On December 8, 2003, Interplay closed downBlack Isle Studios and laid off their entire staff.[26] The company was also involved in issues including debt.Feargus Urquhart later left Black Isle Studios and Interplay suffered a loss of US$20 million in that year.[27]
By June 2004, Interplay's fate was appearing to show, once employees were showing up locked out of the company's offices and other events ensuring, although Titus' co-founder Eric Caen denied that Interplay was closing, deeming them as being "Still There".[28] However, by June 7, it was reported that several California labor investigators had forcefully shut down Interplay's offices over unpaid royalties to developers, unpaid employees and not issuing any health insurance to them.[29] By June 9, Interplay's offices had reopened after Herve Caen secured the funds to pay the insurance for Interplay's staff. On the same day, Titus Interactive announced they were declaring bankruptcy, which made Interplay's future uncertain.[30] In July, they sold theRedneck Rampage franchise toVivendi Universal Games for $300,000, and in October, licensed the rights to theFallout franchise toBethesda Softworks under a three-game deal, while Interplay would retain ownership of the franchise as well as full rights to an MMO title –Fallout Online.[31] By then, Interplay's financial issues began to worsen.
In January 2005, Titus Interactive was officially declared bankrupt and closed down all its French operations effectively.[32] Interplay soon purchased Titus' former assets and led to the company being burdened with debt.
In 2006, Interplay was brought up to the bankruptcy court once again in order to avoid the company going out of business.
In April 2007, in order to pay off creditors, the company altered its licensing agreement with Bethesda Softworks and sold the FalloutIP to them.[33][34]
In September 2008, several games from Interplay's catalog were re-released on thedigital distribution serviceGOG.com after being unavailable in retail distribution for years.[35]
In August 2013, Interplay acquired the remaining rights to theFreeSpace franchise for $7,500 after THQ went to bankruptcy court.[36]
In 2021, Interplay, via Black Isle Studios, re-releasedBaldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on modern consoles, and later that year also released a port of it on PC for the first time.[37][38]
Interplay co-published with3D Realms a remaster of Xatrix Entertainment's 1999 gameKingpin: Life of Crime.Slipgate Ironworks developed the game, Known asKingpin: Reloaded. It was announced on January 17, 2020[39] and released after a long delay on December 5, 2023.[40][41]
In 2003 and 2004 Snowblind Studios and Interplay Entertainment had a dispute regarding theDark Alliance Engine forFallout: Brotherhood of Steel,Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, and theGameCube version of the originalDark Alliance. The resolution allowed Interplay to retain the work they had already done using that engine, but not to use it in new work.[citation needed]
Bethesda Softworks sued Interplay in 2009, seeking an injunction to stop Interplay from developingFallout Online and from sellingFallout Trilogy. After several trials spanning almost three years, Interplay gave Bethesda the full rights forFallout Online for $2 million. Interplay's rights to sell and merchandiseFallout,Fallout 2, andFallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel expired on December 31, 2013.[42]
In 2010,TopWare Interactive revealed that they were developingBattle vs. Chess to be published bySouthPeak Games.[43] Interplay sued them and won an injunction to stop sales in the United States. Interplay won the case by default, and a settlement for $200,000 plus interest was agreed upon on November 15, 2012.[44]
This is a program in which Interplay publishes video games for indie developers. Five games have been released under the program and each is either aplatformer or apuzzle video game and is released underdigital distribution.
Pinball Yeah! is Interplay's first game, created by the Coderunners team based in Portugal and their first game since their return. The player must fight against an evil virtual AI system that wants nothing more than to see the demise of the player's high score.[45]
Tommy Tronic is Interplay's second game by the Discovery program and was developed by Oasis Games and was the studio's first project. Tommy Tronic features classic platforming. The player must run away from Giant Carrots and fight mutated tomatoes.[46]
Despite being the fourth announced game for the Discovery program,Homesteader is the third game released for the Discovery program. The game is developed by Bogemic Games and is a match-3 puzzle game. The game was released for the PC and had a framerate error.[47]
Despite being the third game announced for the Discovery program,Death and the Fly is the fourth game released for the Discovery Program.[48]
Crazy Cats Love is developed by Wolf Games and is Interplay's first video game made using theUnity 3D engine.
Interplay Films, a division of Interplay Entertainment, was formed in 1998 and was supposed to develop seven of the company's most popular video game titles into movies, includingDescent,Redneck Rampage, andFallout. Its president was Tom Reed.
Interplay Sports located in Beverly Hills was the internal sports division at Interplay. The division was founded in 1995 as VR Sports,[54] but changed its name in 1998.[55]
MacPlay, ported games toMac OS from 1990 to 1997. The brand was licensed to United Developers, LLC in 2000.
