To many young gamers, the name Interplay is not one they are too familiar with.  You actually have to blow some dust off the history books to find their last major new release.  The only way some people may know of Interplay is their legacy titles which have recently been re-released or reborn, such as games like Clayfighter, Earthworm Jim, and Baldur’s Gate.  All classic titles which personally ate up many many hours of my life, and that doesn’t even begin to break the ice on Interplay. They have released many famous and great games like Descent, the flight simulator which I used to play until I got motion sickness or until my computer unceremoniously crapped out giving me the blue screen of death.  Descent went on to spawn its own sequel and spin-offs in Freespace, an award winning title which has been repeatedly modded into high quality award winning mods.  Alone in the Dark you should at least be familiar with, it’s fifth installment was recently released in late 2008, now from a different developer/publisher, but it was the original that set the tone for the horror genre and serving as inspiration for titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil years later. Interplay also managed the Star Trek franchise for something like 7 titles.  Earthworm Jim was a hit platformer that became a TV show.  Baldur’s Gate is a classic, award winning RPG, which was the start of the series under its namesake and other spiritual successors.

But the crown jewel in the Interplay coronet all started with a little RPG called Wasteland.  A survivor of a nuclear holocaust wandering the Wasteland, the title turned out to be considered one of the best games of all time and was heavily influential on another hit for Interplay… Fallout, now I have your attention young ones.  Yes, you may recognize this title if you put a “3″ at the end of it.  Interplay is the birthplace of Fallout.

At a quick glance all indicators point to a kick ass, highly successful game company, right?  Dead fucking wrong. Yes Interplay has rocked some amazing titles which have taken more hours of my life than I care to count or admit, but they have been something of a shit show behind the scenes which disqualify them from being considered a highly successful game company.  Now as a heavy disclaimer, I am not criticizing Interplay or it’s management.  It is not easy to run a business, or turn one around, especially in this day and age and in the industry we hold so dear.  I actually hold Interplay and it’s team in high regard for keeping the ship sailing where many others would have sunk.  Now that is out of the way I’m sure some flames will pop up, but oh well, onwards.

Interplay has experienced… well a whole load of trouble in it’s lifetime.  Founded in the ruts of the great video game crash of 1983, Interplay had to create some quality and make some money in a market that was devastated by the clusterfuck known as E.T.  It started off very successful by developing titles like Bard’s Tale and Wasteland followed by moving into publishing with titles such as Castles and Battle Chess.  They carried on for many years with some of the great hits mentioned above, that lasted until the late 1990’s.  Most successful titles quickly spawned sequels, trying to leverage on the work already done and to capitalize on the momentum. The firm went public in 1998 and sales started to drop off.  Quality titles still played today, if not by yourself then maybe your Dad, but they didn’t turn enough of a profit.  Interplay was bought out by Titus in 2001, which brought in a new management team.  More trouble plagued the firm, as the games that came out of production were not best (see Run Like Hell) which drove the company into a worse financial position, causing the stock to be de-listed from the NASDAQ in 2002.  By 2004 the company had essentially collapsed.  Debt was too high and cash flow was practically nil.  Landlords were issuing eviction notices and staff stopped getting paychecks. The state of California said “BAD! You need to pay employees” and hit Interplay with all sorts for penalties and fines.

Strapped for cash and knee deep in a shit load of troubles, as not paying people will do that, Interplay needed a way out.  With the man breathing down their neck, Interplay shutdown all internal development and hunted for cash.  The best way to get cash quick?  Sell stuff, like intellectual properties, not drugs, as DeLorean proved that wasn’t the way to do things.  Enter Bethesda, as of April 2007 the new owner for the Fallout IP, developer and publisher of Fallout 3 and we all know how that part of the story works out for Bethesda and for Fallout.

But what of Interplay?  Well they got the green they needed, a nice cool chunk of change of $5.75 million.  From the ashes Interplay quickly put that money to work, relaunching their website and announcing development of a few new titles for the IP’s they still own, such as Earthworm Jim 4, MDK3, Descent 4, in an attempt to cash in on their previously critically acclaimed and financially successful franchises.  Interplay has also struck deals with Good Old Games to digitally distribute some of their classic titles.  A smart move to generate some revenue at a low cost.

Interplay also started work on the not-so top secret Project V13.  Ohhh a project name, it must be something juicy.  Well it is.  It’s the Fallout MMOG, its not a big secret, it’s in the Asset Purchase Agreement, the deal Interplay struck with Bethesda to sell Fallout, which allowed Bethesda to develop and publish Fallout 3 and grants Interplay the right to license back, exclusively, the Fallout IP for the purpose of developing an Interplay branded Fallout MMOG

“B. Interplay wishes to use the Licensed Marks [Fallout] solely in connection with the development and implementation of a Massively Multiplayer Online Game.”

It doesn’t get more obvious than that… or does it? Interplay has brought back two of the original Fallout team, Chris Taylor and Jason Anderson, and have fired up the community on their forums. Taylor joined up in September 2008 when the website was relaunched with Taylor making appearances on the forums as Fallout(r)Chris asking questions about MMOG’s and reading a lot about what people want to see in a Fallout MMOG.   Job postings referencing MMOG’s and familiarity with the Fallout universe throw more fuel to the fire.   Sounds like all is good and happy for Interplay now right? Not quite.

Dive a bit deeper into the APA with Bethesda and you can uncover a few more interesting clauses. 24 months after the effective date of the APA, Interplay needs to secure a minimum financing amount of $30 million and begin development in order to retain the rights to the Fallout branded MMOG.  This spells trouble for Interplay because April is here. The APA was signed 04-April-2007 but was not effective until 09-April, so the calendar will pass the 2 year mark on 09-April-2009.  Right now Interplay is in a tough market to raise capital and secure funding.  Have they secured the minimum financing amount of $30 million?  Looking at Interplay’s last quarterly financial statements they have yet to secure any financing for future operations, much less for the Fallout MMOG. In this market, $30 million is a very tall order; add 1 recession, mix with credit crunch and you get very little financing going around these days. This is even more difficult for a company like Interplay who has a market cap of only $6 million, negative cash flows and a negative outlook.

“As of September 30, 2008, we had a working capital deficit of approximately $2.3 million, and our cash balance was approximately $5,000″

Well shit, that’s barely enough to pay the rent for the past 6 months, so how are they still afloat and what did they do with the $5.75 million? My bet is the $5.75 million went to pay off various debts, fines, and was used to get the business up and running again so that is all spent.  To keep paying people Interplay must have some cash flow, most likely from the recent redistribution of old titles, but do they have the full $30 million?  I took the liberty to contact several people at Interplay with this query and they kindly replied with nothing useful or nothing at all.  Which tells me, they don’t have the $30 million yet, because if they have secured financing they would be happy to say “Yes, we are in the business of making games and that’s what we are doing, we have a hot IP and we are making the most of it.”  Since nothing doesn’t really sound like that, I assume nothing is what they have.

To increase my doubts of an Interplay Fallout MMOG becoming a reality, a few weeks ago Jason Anderson departed from his employ at Interplay to join up with inXile, a firm founded by the original Interplay owner Brian Fargo.  In an interview with Gamasutra, Mr. Anderson, co-creator of Fallout, made the following statement regarding Project V13 and his move,

“The future of the — well, I don’t know if I want to go there. [inXile] was a more stable opportunity.”

Even if Interplay secures the financing and begins full development before the April deadline, they are not out of the woods yet.  Interplay must successfully launch the MMOG within six years (which entails securing the continual patronage of a minimum of 10,000 paying subscribers), or else they forfeit the license.

I’m not the only one thinking Interplay will lose out here.  Shortly after executing the APA, ZeniMax, Bethesda’s parent company, launched ZeniMax Online Studios, focusing on MMOG’s, working on undisclosed secret projects.  Their website states they are fully funded, sounds like they are just waiting until April to launch, only time will tell.

It’s been up, and it’s definitely been down. Right now, it’s a steep climb for Interplay to become a market player again. With silence coming from their camp, employees jumping ship, and the clock ticking, I fear for the firm’s existence. Low on cash and losing out on a big opportunity to develop the rights to a MMOG for one for 2008’s best titles, Interplay is in danger of going under, or at least suffering a major setback. Yes they can develop their other titles, such as MDK or Earthworm Jim, but will they really be successful and bring Interplay back in a big way? Does Interplay have the money to do it right? I remind you, $5,000 in cash is what Interplay had in September 2008, 6 months ago, that’s it. I doubt that coupled with sales of classic titles via Good Old Games will pay the staff and the rent. Meanwhile ZeniMax has been ramping up an MMOG factory.

My prediction, Interplay fails to raise the funds and the rights go to Bethesda. ZeniMax Online Studios will begin development on the Fallout 3 MMOG and hopefully Bethesda continue to support Fallout 3, keeping the DLC coming until we get our MMOG. Interplay will struggle. While I wish Chris Talyor & company the best and can hope to see revivals of their previous titles, unfortunately I doubt they will be successful in the near future. Interplay has performed well in previous times of economic uncertainity, so they might have it them. I kindly ask of you Interplay, prove me wrong.  If not, well Bethesda did one hell of a job with Fallout 3, if they can do a MMOG with less bugs I may be up for it.  Either way someone get cracking and give me some Fallout online.

[UPDATE] I just found out that 2 days ago, Interplay  swapped some stock for a few old IP’s from Microprose (M1 Tank Platoon, Subwar, and Conquest). The total value of the stock swap was $327,298 for over 5 million shares with an option to buy another 1.6 million shares within 3 years. That’s about 6% of Interplay.

Yesterday Interplay Entertainment Corp.  (OTC.BB:IPLY) filed a notice of late posting of their financials. In it they must disclose any possible significant differences from the past 12 months. The only difference they mentioned is they earned 5.75 million in 2007 from the sale of Fallout which was a one off transaction. No mention of raising 30 million in financing, which I think is a significant event that would be worthy noting.  My Money is on Interplay losing the Fallout license and trying to just sell old classic titles again. Maybe a few compilations. Rough choice.