Global InformationList of Interplay games information
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Interplay Entertainment is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1983 by former Boone Corporation colleagues Brian Fargo, Troy Worrell, Jay Patel, and Rebecca Heineman (then known as Bill Heineman), as well as an investor and University of California, Irvine, teacher named Chris Wells, and adopted Interplay Productions as its original company name two years later. As a developer, it produced several graphic adventure games for Activision to publish, but its first major hit was The Bard's Tale in 1985, a role-playing game published by Electronic Arts.[1] Dragon Wars became the first game that Interplay published while it continued to score hits with titles such as Battle Chess, titles that demonstrated early on the developer's preference for risk-taking involving unconventional concepts for them.[2]
In the early 1990s, Interplay founded a division called MacPlay that was tasked with porting the company's games to the macOS.[3] Interplay's business grew well into the mid-1990s, such that Fargo, its CEO, split it into several more divisions with some employed as directors overseeing the divisions' projects. One of the divisions was created in 1995, called VR Sports and later renamed to Interplay Sports in 1998, to deal with sports games.[4] Another division was founded in 1996 to develop role-playing games, becoming Black Isle Studios two years later.[5] Brainstorm was also founded in 1996 and specialized in educational games.[6] Interplay also acquired Shiny Entertainment in 1995, best known as the creator of the Earthworm Jim series.[7] Further notable releases by Interplay during that time include Parallax Software's Descent and its own Fallout series.[8]
By 1998, Interplay was hit with a bankruptcy crisis. To avoid closure, it began trading on the NASDAQ exchange under the new and current name, Interplay Entertainment. However, repeated development delays, poor sales showings, stiffened competition in the PC gaming market, and the company's underestimation of console demand contributed to its financial woes. It was delisted from NASDAQ in 2002, and Fargo's successor, Titus Interactive co-founder Hervé Caen, decided that the company must cancel numerous current projects and close or sell its studios. 2004's Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II would become the last game published by Interplay until 2010 with its establishment of Interplay Discovery,[9] and the company narrowly avoided the corporate death penalty by selling the Fallout license to Bethesda Softworks in 2007, clearing its debt.[8]
Of the divisions Interplay had formed in its lifetime, only Black Isle Studios and Interplay Discovery remain active, though the former was briefly shut down in 2003 before it was reopened in 2012.[10][5] Digital Mayhem operated from 2000 to 2003.[11] MacPlay was shut down in 1998 before it was acquired and relaunched by United Developers in 2000.[3] Shiny Entertainment was sold to Atari SA in 2002.[7] Tribal Dreams developed only one game before it was closed in 1998.[12] The following is a list of games developed, published or distributed by Interplay or any of its divisions.
- ^ Barton 2013, pp. 31, 63.
- ^ Barton 2013, pp. 38–40.
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