Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game and computer game publisher and developer. It has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy since mid-2004.

History

The company was founded as "Interplay Productions" in Southern California in 1983 by former employees of a small video game developer called Boone Corporation . Interplay made a name for itself as a quality computer game developer with the role-playing games The Bard's Tale and Wasteland, which were published by Electronic Arts.

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 1993, Interplay published the hit game Descent, developed by startup Parallax Software.

In 1997, Interplay released and developed Fallout, a successful and critically-acclaimed role-playing game set in a retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic setting which was followed by a sequel, Fallout 2. The most successful subsequent Interplay franchise was probably Baldur's Gate, a Dungeons & Dragons game that was developed by BioWare and published by Interplay's Black Isle Studios branch and spawned a successful sequel and several expansion packs and a sequel.

Over the years, Interplay's most successful titles were PC games. The company published a few notable console games, such as ClayFighter , Rock 'N Roll Racing, The Lost Vikings, and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, but Interplay was never quite able to establish a long-lasting console franchise.

Interplay attempted to get several of its games made into movies, notably Descent, Redneck Rampage and Fallout, but no such movies were ever made.

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. In 2002, Interplay shed most of its publisher functions and signed a long-term agreement by which Vivendi Universal would publish Interplay's games. Immediately afterwards, French publisher Titus Interactive completed its acquisition of majority control of the company, and founder Brian Fargo departed. Later in 2002, Interplay's shares were delisted from the NASDAQ due to the company's low share price.

In 2004, the company was given an eviction notice by its landlord for non-payment of rent, and was briefly shut down by the California labor board for non-payment of workers' paychecks. The company said it had relocated to a small office and seemingly continues to operate, issuing occasional press releases about new publishing deals or the sale of an IP to another publisher. The company's Web site has been inoperative since about August 2004.

Notable titles

• The Bard's Tale - RPG, internally developed
• Wasteland - RPG, internally developed
• Neuromancer - Action/Adventure game, internally developed
• Battle Chess - chess game, internally developed
• Descent - action game, developed by Parallax Software
• Alone in the Dark - survival horror game, developed by I-Motion
• The Lost Vikings - developed by Silicon & Synapse
• Rock 'N Roll Racing - racing game, developed by Silicon & Synapse
• Out of This World (a.k.a. Another World outside of US) - action-adventure game, developed by Delphine Software
• Virtual Pool - pool (billiards) game, developed by Celeris
• Stonekeep - RPG, internally developed
• Fallout - RPG, internally developed
• Descent: Freespace - space sim, developed by Volition
• Freespace 2 - space sim, sequel to Descent:Freespace, developed by Volition
• Redneck Rampage - first-person shooter game, developed by Xatrix
• Baldur's Gate - RPG, developed by BioWare

External links

• News story mentioning the Redneck Rampage movie
• MobyGame's entry on Interplay

• Ashford City - Support and discussion forums for the Interplay games