Interplay - Murky Future

[Mr Sleep]

It is not looking good for our best loved games company:

End of the road for Interplay?

Opinions?

[Gruntboy]

Die, stupid uncreative pointless pathetic games producer, die!

[Tom]

i do hope they get nwn out.

but it seems reasonable to expect it no? i mean titus arnt so stupid that they can't see there is a big market for it and a profit for them. so i will keep hoping.

[fable]

Fargo's been among the canniest producers in the computer gaming world. He's sat on top of that company since the mid-1980's, and he's changed direction to keep it afloat a number of times. I suspect that he's watching the console market now, and deciding whether its time to cash in his chips (even if temporarily) on PC titles, and move more onto the xbox and other machines.

But knowing him, he's not going to suddenly jump like the others. Lucasarts has only *1* PC title in the works at the moment, and that one's at least two years off for publication. If the console market doesn't prove the boom that has been forecast, Lucasarts is in deep trouble. Interplay's more hesitant approach could work to their benefit, in the long run.

[Mr Sleep]

Fargo is a bit of a gambling man then?

I thought you might be the one with the insight Fable

I think Lucsarts have the financial backing to stick with the PC, but they decided to move over to the consoles, it could be a grave mistake.

[Yshania]

Black Isle, now Interplay

[fable]

@Sleep, I think you're right about Lucasarts. They're putting all their cards into consoles ports of extant games, except for an RPG that's 2-3 years out: how do they hope to maintain presence and brand identification in the PC market in the meantime?

As to Fargo, he's a smart man, even if he is a pushy one. I hope Interplay survives. At least he tries to do good games along with the junk; so many just do the junk. And Interplay's one of the few survivors in the business, after SSI and Microprose werre killed, Sierra lost its identity, and Origin Systems was assimilated by the Bor...I mean, EA.

[Mr Sleep]

Quote:

Originally posted by Yshania: <STRONG>Black Isle, now Interplay </STRONG>

Black Isle were a part of interplay.

[Mr Sleep]

Quote:

Originally posted by fable: <STRONG>@Sleep, I think you're right about Lucasarts. They're putting all their cards into consoles ports of extant games, except for an RPG that's 2-3 years out: how do they hope to maintain presence and brand identification in the PC market in the meantime?</STRONG>

They recently put out a few games on budget, i think they will try to maintain a presence by budegeting a great deal of their games in bundles etc.

Quote:

<STRONG>As to Fargo, he's a smart man, even if he is a pushy one. I hope Interplay survives. At least he tries to do good games along with the junk; so many just do the junk. And Interplay's one of the few survivors in the business, after SSI and Microprose werre killed, Sierra lost its identity, and Origin Systems was assimilated by the Bor...I mean, EA.</STRONG>

yeah i can name more than a handful of good games that interplay have produced. The article says they have $667K left, not bad really, except when you look at how much games cost these days i am surprised any company remains afloat.

[fable]

Yeah, it's been a division for sometime.

[fable]

My only direct interaction with Fargo was about a decade ago, when he tried to tell me, in a four way telephone conversation with a PR person and a developer, that just simply adding a larger database to his new chess game made it infinitely better. I'm afraid I told him that adding a larger database only improves the variety of moves, not the AI, only I was a bit less diplomatic. It later transpired that the dev folks were telling him the same thing behind the scenes, so he didn't take kindly to a reviewer immediately spotting it, as well.

[Mr Sleep]

Quote:

Originally posted by fable: <STRONG>It later transpired that the dev folks were telling him the same thing behind the scenes, so he didn't take kindly to a reviewer immediately spotting it, as well. </STRONG>

LMAO bitten by the beast LOL

So you think they (interplay) might still have a future? What is their slump really about, surely they have made money with BG2 etc. It seems strange to me. Surely their overheads can not be that astrinomical.

[fable]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr Sleep: <STRONG>LMAO bitten by the beast LOL So you think they (interplay) might still have a future? What is their slump really about, surely they have made money with BG2 etc. It seems strange to me. Surely their overheads can not be that astrinomical.</STRONG>

As much as game companies take in, they spend on these big-budget development projects like BG2, NWN--or as TORN would have been. The art and code work is incredibly costly. Most people don't know how much goes into the design of a typcial game, unless they visit a developer's "warren" and get an actual chance to see how games are built.

And then you have marketing and PR costs. Plus a large bite of the pie goes to the very well-off retail chains, that have a monopoly on determining what products get sold over-the-counter. If you want to see where the money goes when you buy a game, look no further than the cash register where you bought it. Much of the payment sticks right there.

[Mr Sleep]

So i should blame the retail stores for the average game being £30+, it is quite interesing you mention that, i buy the odd game from PC World and they quite often have a relitively new game for £20 or less for clearence, this is probably more like the price we should be paying, i also go to a little corner shop around the corner ( ) who almost always sells the same games for about £5 cheaper.

I am sure all of this is just exacerbated in the US.

It is probably the same argument that surrounds supermarkets.

I found another interesting article.

Gaming at its deadliest

[Darkpoet]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm, you read too much, Sleep. I did read Stardust and Neverwhere, I also went out and bought Sandman 1-6.