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[Ghost]

Im sure there was a thread on Old Gaf about this, but for old times sake, heres the news again.

Embattled publisher Interplay has had its headquarters in California shut down by state authorities, after it emerged that the company failed to pay employees last month, and has no workers' compensation insurance.

Investigators from the Labour Standards Enforcement division of California's Department of Industrial Relations made an inspection of the Interplay offices on Friday after being informed that staff had not been paid, and forced operations at the offices to be suspended.

"An employer has responsibilities when they open a business," a spokesperson for the California Labour Commisssioner told the Orange County Register, which broke the story. "The responsibilities include proper and timely payment of wages. It includes providing workers compensation coverage in case there are injuries. If the employer cannot accommodate those basic issues of doing business, we cannot allow employees to work."

Although this does not amount to Interplay being shut down - something which the Labour Commissioner does not have the power to do, as we understand the situation - it does effectively mean that the operations of the company have been entirely halted pending either a resolution which allows employees to return to work, or the complete closure of the operation.

Interplay CEO Herve Caen maintained his bullish tone over the future of the company, commenting that "I hope to have [insurance] back by Monday or Tuesday," but this latest difficulty is only one of the huge problems faced by the publisher.

It also faces eviction from its offices by landlord Arden Realty, to whom it owes some $432,000 in unpaid rent, and employees have been warned by Arden that they should remove their personal belongings pending a lockout.

That debt is in addition to $179,000 owed to the state in unpaid taxes, $79,000 which it is being fined for the labour law infractions which have led to this suspension of business, and a potential debt of $156,000 in royalties for Baldur's Gate for which it is being sued by Canadian developer Bioware.

That's enough to consume the lion's share of the $1.2 million in cash assets which the company had in its financial statement in mid-April - and it's unlikely that it even has that much cash at the moment, having shed some 40 staff in the interim weeks.

Interplay's shares are currently trading at under 5 cents - the lowest they've ever been, and down from a price of 16.5 cents around this time last year.

I feel sorry for the interplay employees who will most likely never see the money they are owed.

 

[Gattsu25]

impressions:

+ Good job for Bioware
+ Does this mean the Fallout Series is completely dead?
- Feel bad for the employees...this is bad news for them
- Awalys bad to see a big or once-big company go

Average Score: 6.7

 

[tenchir]

If Interplay goes down, they are likely to sell their Interllectual Property(Fallout).

 

[Slo]

Yeah, here's hoping Obsidian picks up the Planescape Torment license.

 

[Mashing]

impressions:

+ Good job for Bioware
+ Does this mean the Fallout Series is completely dead?
- Feel bad for the employees...this is bad news for them
- Awalys bad to see a big or once-big company go

Average Score: 6.7

I fail to see how no more Fallout games (not including the spinoffs) is a postitive... unless of course you didn't like those games.

 

[Excelion]

http://burgerbill.livejournal.com/2004/06/03/

EA is probably interested in Fallout, just to sit on the franchise and laugh at hardcore gamers.

here's hoping Obsidian picks up the Planescape Torment license.

Planescape is a taboo in the new pokemonized WOTC land.

Microsoft should have bought Interplay instead of Rare in 2002 (Titus asked for 100$ million), Baldur's Gate 3 was in dev at this time and Black Isle was still full of talented people.

 

[Yossarian]

I fail to see how no more Fallout games (not including the spinoffs) is a postitive... unless of course you didn't like those games.

Well, its a positive thing if it means no more Interplay Fallout games. No more cancelled Fallout games. No more cockteasing. I want another Fallout game goddamnit.

 

[Slo]

Planescape is a taboo in the new pokemonized WOTC land.

Eh?

 

[explodet]

However, the company president promised everyone that all is well despite no assurances that paychecks were coming any time soon.

See anything wrong with this statement?
And he blames Shiny and Enter the Matrix indirectly for losing a wad of cash - yet another reason to dislike that game.

Planescape is a taboo in the new pokemonized WOTC land.

Ironic seeing how WOTC doesn't make Pokemon cards anymore.

Interplay being down for the count means no more Descent games (although we haven't seen one in a while anyway), Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Carmageddon, Kingpin, Hunter: The Reckoning.... uh, yeah.

Do they still have the Star Trek license?

 

[Mashing]

I second that eh....

What the hell are you talking about Excelion?

 

[LinesInTheSand]

Poor Interplay. Sad to see what was once a great, great company fall to these levels.

 

[Excelion]

WOTC didn't approve Baldur's Gate 3, too mature.

 

[Mashing]

So... Bioware can just have a different publisher publish it... I doubt they'd have trouble find a suitor...

It's not like they're owned by WOTC... although they do have the AD&D license, so I guess THAT would be the stickler

 

[Zaptruder]

They'll never make another space sim.... one of gaming's finer genre's has gone the way of the the adventure games...

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Poor, poor Interplay...developer of my all-time favorite game:

 

[golem]

hey, my favorite game of all time is Wasteland too, that game still kicks ass

No wonder all my Interplay friends were all playing CoH 24/7 suddenly...

 

[MentalNoiz]

Hopefully someone buys up the Kingpin IP . I thought that game was a lot of fun, and Bagman had me addicted for months .

However, lets hope Gray Matter isn't involved as their last effort wasn't that great . I attribute that to them losing some of their core talent after Kingpin was done, Mal Blackwell, and the great art director Victor Antanov(sp) who is working on HL2 now I think .

 

[Asskicker064]

I wanted to see a Stonekeep II.

 

[Diablos]

impressions:

+ Good job for Bioware
+ Does this mean the Fallout Series is completely dead?
- Feel bad for the employees...this is bad news for them
- Awalys bad to see a big or once-big company go

Average Score: 6.7

haha, that's the most creative post I've seen on this new forum yet.

Fuck Interplay for fucking everyone over, I hope Interplay is forced to pay them back and help them get a good job.

 

[Ghost]

How are they gonna do that when they go out of business?

 

[acklame]

:lol

the ceo is in a state of denial

 

[Matt]

 

[Mr_Furious]

Yet no one in management's head will roll if Interplay actually bounces back. they're the fucktards that put poor Interplay in the state they're in (and have been).