Interplay Going Under

[Rasorow]

<sigh> Another great game company from the Good Ole Days goes out with a whimper.

I still have the 25th aniversary ed of Star Trek and many other of their older games....

<Salutes the old great Interplay: for gamers by gamers>

[DarkAnt]

good ol' fallout, that was a great game. This is indeed sad news.

[Gillissie]

I hate to say it, but I saw this coming about 10 years ago when you could no longer get ahold of tech support, and every game nagged you until you registered. The only thing registering got you was a telemarketing call trying to sell you some of their old games. Also, they entered the era of "release now, patch later" with some really bad releases.

Remember when their slogan was "By gamers for gamers."? Those were the good ol' days alright.

[ June 28, 2004, 06:07: Message edited by: Gillissie ]

[Atrocities]

I have to agree. They lost focus and went for the $$ and that ruined them. But still they did make some nice games. Freespace, Decent, Balders Gate, etc.

[Gandalf Parker]

There were alot of things they did which caused them problems. One of the things I like to point to is their advertising policies. Every game they had they liked to do full-page full-color ads on in every major game magazine. Remember seeing those every 10 pages or so?

There are good intentioned people in every marketing area who inform people in their own field how things should be done. I heard it when running a mud, I heard it when working for ISPs, I heard it during the dot-com boom, and I hear it now in the area of games markets. "If you dont do what the big guys do then you will crash and burn". But thats alittle too simple.

What they should be saying is "if you want to be like the big boys then watch what they do and do that". That would be less arguable. But as far as the crash-and-burn part it then becomes "that way you will either be big or crash big".

In none of the areas Ive worked in have I ever seen crash-and-burn for not doing what the big guys do. I HAVE seen it because people decided to go ahead and DO what the big guys do. It was always regrettable because they were always doing well where they were before they took the chance. There is always room in every niche and level for someone who does it well. And if anyone doesnt like it then there is always the option to do it themselves. Dont try to convice my favorite (insert whatever organization here) to do it for you.

In gaming terms what would that be? "I request that you make war on that other nation. Dont worry, I will be right behind you"

Gandalf Parker
-- (suitable sig)
Me: Some play to win or lose. Others play to stay in the game.
Them: Are we talking about games? Or about life in general?
Me: Exactly.

[ July 10, 2004, 14:52: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Atrocities]

With all fairness they went under not because of their advertising practices, but because they spent to much time developing games and not releasing games.



Decent
Decent II
Decent III
Decent Freespace
Freespace II
Bolders Gate
Bolders Gate II
Star Fleet Command
Star Fleet Command II

Were all excellent games with effective advertising. But since then, NOTHING. What really hurt Interplay was the lack of support for their games.

[Azselendor]

Advertising costs a lot of money. Interplay spent a small fortune on it. It may not have pulled them over, but it is one bad business plan they had.

I think interplay just got too complacent with development and stopped making good games - or at least interesting games. They just kept cranking out games expecting to get thier royalities advance and to have thier publishers hand them money and cover development up front when they came knocking.

Then one day, everyone stopped answering the door when they came knocking.