Interplay
General
Interplay is an American video game publisher which published, among many other games, both Descent: FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2, developed by Volition Inc. Descent: FreeSpace met with standard sales figures; GameSpot called it "a (Wing Commander) clone, but a good one". FreeSpace 2 and Descent 3, however, met with lackluster sales. The company was briefly aquired by French Publisher Titus Interactive until the latter closed business in 2004. Interplay was heavily in debt by that time and received both eviction notices (for non-payment of rent) and government lawsuits (for non-payment of employees). By 2006 it made a securities filing (basically a request for loans) that allowed it to begin development of the Fallout online game.
Present
Interplay still owns the FreeSpace IP (Intellectual Property rights). The company briefly traded the IP to Microsoft and several credit companies around 2003 to keep the company alive, but Interplay has since paid off its debt to these companies and re-aquired the license. At present -- January 2008 -- the company is still $3 million "in the red".
The company managed to sell the Fallout IP to Bethesda Softworks for $7.6 million, and Interplay has thus managed to start negotiations about aquiring an internal development studio.
According to a November 2007 GameSpot interview, Interplay has plans on developing sequels to some of its classic IPs. Specifically, "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."
FreeSpace 3 is not included in this list. Should the space shooter genre ever become a major industry, however, Interplay may decide to finish the trilogy.
See also
- For more information, see the Interplay Wikipedia page.
- Interplay official website
