Author Topic: Interplay: The End Is Near?  (Read 15165 times)

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Offline Cabbie

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Quote
Originally posted by Setekh
The only reason I would want us to get the licence is so we can keep working on the SCP and put out full version downloads and jazz legally. That would be cool. :)


Make it easy to use and newbie friendly and I'm sure a lot of people like myself would pay for that. :)


Edit: I noticed that the Interplay.com Forums were taken down...temporarily...
« Last Edit: April 23, 2004, 10:43:35 pm by 1826 »

 

Offline Unknown Target

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Interplay Employees sent home?
It is easy to use :D :p You just have to learn it, same as everything else worth doing ;)

 

Offline Cabbie

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Quote
Originally posted by Unknown Target
It is easy to use :D :p You just have to learn it, same as everything else worth doing ;)


Ah true true. But I mean, if theoretically you fellows do get the license for Freespace, it would be good for the developers to at least get some monetary compensation for their efforts and at the same time draw new blood to the franchise by putting all the upgrades/new missions/enhancement in one attractive and convenient package.

 

Offline ViRGE

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Apologies for bumping an old thread, but better than starting a new one. After their past troubles, Interplay has reached the next stage in insolvency, with word coming out that their offices have been shutdown. This comes on the heals of their website shutdown about 2 weeks ago, and their continued inability to pay their employees, rent, taxes, or outstanding payments to other companies.

And on a related note, I managed to get some of Interplay's financial information, which shows a couple of interesting points. First and foremost, they need about 3mil to make payroll, and only had about half that as of last month; it also seems likely, in turn, that the FS2 re-release was part of a "get rich quick" scheme for Interplay to take advantage of the FS2 shortage, and generate some cash. This point is moot now, since you can't buy the re-release anymore(no more Interplay.com to buy it from), but I think it properly illustrates what Interplay's intentions were. Also, should Interplay fold, it seems likely Vivendi Universal would get the Freespace license, since Titus Interactive, Interplay's owner, is also about to go under, putting Vivendi at the top of the chain.

The end is near, folks.

 

Offline jdjtcagle

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Since I really don't understand about licenses and stuff... Is the "end is near" good or bad??
"Brings a tear of nostalgia to my eye" -Flipside
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Official Interplay Freespace Stories
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Offline karajorma

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Quote
Originally posted by jdjtcagle
Since I really don't understand about licenses and stuff... Is the "end is near" good or bad??


Potentially very good, potentially very bad.

If interplay go bankrupt [V] may buy the licence and make FS3 for PC. They might just make it for the consoles (which would probably ruin it).  Or it might get picked up by someone who does a dreadful cash-in on the PC.

Or if we're lucky and it's cheap enough the whole community could chip in and buy the license ourselves meaning that we could distribute FS2 ourselves for free from Gamespy (imagine how many new players we'd pick up from doing that!).
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Offline Ghostavo

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Both... the license being in the hands of another company might disallow the use of the source code to spread the community or... FS... er.... 4!!! :nervous:
"Closing the Box" - a campaign in the making :nervous:

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Offline Lightspeed

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Or nobody wants the license anymore.

:)
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Offline jdjtcagle

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Ooo... I would definatly throw in most of my of my salary (I need gas money :D) , and extra money I get.  Screw buying things for myself this would be WAY!! more worth it... :nod:
"Brings a tear of nostalgia to my eye" -Flipside
------------------------------------------
I'm an Apostolic Christian (Acts: 2:38)
------------------------------------------
Official Interplay Freespace Stories
Predator
Hammer Of Light - Omen of Darkness
Freefall in Darkness
A Thousand Years

 

Offline Lt.Cannonfodder

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Interplay Employees sent home?
What would happen if no one bought the license? Abandonware?

 

Offline Falcon

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Yeah thier website is off. I tried to get in but I was brought with a page not found error. Bye Bye Interplay. I really hope you guys do buy the Freespace licenses maybe you guys will be the next group who comes out with Freespace 3. So far you guys have managed to do source coding, improved upon models and textures, and come out with some nice special effects. Most people don't know how to do that period. I actually think that in the future you could actually become a company IMHO. Keep up the good work.

 
Interplay Employees sent home?
I am not a lawyer, the following is AFAIK only, and may only be applicable if :I: was a Dutch company, or not at all. Be warned, I am not sure of this.

Err, no. Once Interplay files for bankrupcy properly, all it's property would be sold to its creditors (or is it debitors, the once who still need money from :I:) will get their part of :I: goods. By ratio of money owed, they will get to pick (or they get some stuff they can't pick, not sure on US law here) bits of good from :I:. Their furniture, PC's, publishing rights, intelectual property, stuff like that.  The rights for FS will certainly go to someone, basicly because even if they are worth $5, it's still something. We could, off course, approach one of the guys who get the stuff and ask them if we can buy the license, but that's our gamble.

Either that, or the mother company pays for all the debts, and gets all the stuff. If the mother company goes, same thing applies, either the stuff gets auctioned to the people who want the money, or it goes to their mother company.
just another newbie without any modding, FREDding or real programming experience

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Legal question: Is it just the name Freespace (a trademark, I would say) or the story as well (IP, I geuss) that's under dispute?
I'm trying to read up on US copyright law, but it seems limited to writing, architecture, and visual arts (paintings, video art?). Games aren't mentioned, and the site ( www.copyright.gov ) is about as clear as a muddy pool with algea.
just another newbie without any modding, FREDding or real programming experience

you haven't learned masochism until you've tried to read a Microsoft help file.  -- Goober5000
I've got 2 drug-addict syblings and one alcoholic whore. And I'm a ****ing sociopath --an0n
You cannot defeat Windows through strength alone. Only patience, a lot of good luck, and a sledgehammer will do the job. --StratComm

 
Interplay Employees sent home?
do we know any contact details to inquire about such a purchase?

plus, i think it maybe a combination of both.
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name."
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Interplay Employees sent home?
Nope, not untill :I: is officially bankrupt, anyway. Then, you could see if some of the guys who how them money have their phone number posted on the web, or in the yellow pages or something. Then you can see if they are interested in dealing with a bunch of greasy, teenage geeks trying to play big and buy some Intelectual Property.

The legal **** needed for a community to buy those rights is going to be hellish, we'll need a few people who are 1) of legal age, 2) in some country were the appropriate laws are good, and 3) want to devote their time to buying the title.

We would probably need to set up a foundation, or a trust, with board, secretary and the whole nine yards, for us to collectively own that stuff. Then, we would need to mass donate/join that organisation. Once we own the rights, we would need to get our money back, somehow, because we will need to invest a lot. Think big supporters giving more then 500 dollars, at least, and then we need an army of big supporters too. So we'll have to get a publisher to publish the stuff the SCP people made. But we can't, because the :V: license said we cannot make profit from the source code. So we will have to buy a license from :V: for the code, so we will have to talk to THQ as well. When we have all the licenses, we will need to get a publisher, or somebody who wants to make our CD's for no cost untill we make profit. And when we have the CD's, we will need a packager too. And distribution, and interested stores. So we will need to advertise, so we will need to invest even more.


This is just me being cynic, so it might be easier then this. But a lot of this stuff is probably close to the thruth. It might be wise to stop dreaming, unless you want your dreams to be crushed.
just another newbie without any modding, FREDding or real programming experience

you haven't learned masochism until you've tried to read a Microsoft help file.  -- Goober5000
I've got 2 drug-addict syblings and one alcoholic whore. And I'm a ****ing sociopath --an0n
You cannot defeat Windows through strength alone. Only patience, a lot of good luck, and a sledgehammer will do the job. --StratComm

 
Interplay Employees sent home?
Quote
Originally posted by Ghostavo
Both... the license being in the hands of another company might disallow the use of the source code to spread the community or... FS... er.... 4!!! :nervous:


Err, no. Kazan says, and I believe him, that only :V: can revoke the license for the source code usage. That says nothing about selling, but we will be able to use the source as we are using now untill :V: says otherwise.
just another newbie without any modding, FREDding or real programming experience

you haven't learned masochism until you've tried to read a Microsoft help file.  -- Goober5000
I've got 2 drug-addict syblings and one alcoholic whore. And I'm a ****ing sociopath --an0n
You cannot defeat Windows through strength alone. Only patience, a lot of good luck, and a sledgehammer will do the job. --StratComm

 

Offline Kazan

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Interplay Employees sent home?
to make things simple

Volition owns everything in the origional sourceball distributed to use that spawned the SCP (and a few things they didn't include in it)

Interplay owns everthing in the VPs


----------

IIRC their release of the VP and POF format specs to DNet makes the licensing on the file formats something similiar to the CPL (yes CPL)
« Last Edit: June 02, 2004, 01:53:42 pm by 30 »
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Offline Kazan

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Interplay Employees sent home?
I just emailed Adam Pletcher, nobody else bother him, I don't want him flooded with emails
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Offline ViRGE

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Quote
Originally posted by kasperl
I am not a lawyer, the following is AFAIK only, and may only be applicable if :I: was a Dutch company, or not at all. Be warned, I am not sure of this.

Err, no. Once Interplay files for bankrupcy properly, all it's property would be sold to its creditors (or is it debitors, the once who still need money from :I:) will get their part of :I: goods. By ratio of money owed, they will get to pick (or they get some stuff they can't pick, not sure on US law here) bits of good from :I:. Their furniture, PC's, publishing rights, intelectual property, stuff like that.  The rights for FS will certainly go to someone, basicly because even if they are worth $5, it's still something. We could, off course, approach one of the guys who get the stuff and ask them if we can buy the license, but that's our gamble.

Either that, or the mother company pays for all the debts, and gets all the stuff. If the mother company goes, same thing applies, either the stuff gets auctioned to the people who want the money, or it goes to their mother company.

As per my knowledge, this would be the most correct interpretation. And if I got anyone's hopes up, I apologize; I was basically trying to do the opposite: Interplay has no interest in making another FS, they just wanted the quick cash; and the future owner of the Freespace license will almost assuredly be VU, which likely will also have no interest in the game, but little interest selling it for anything we peasants could afford(since if we tried to buy it, they'd know we'd be interested, and ask a lot for it). What I'm trying to get at is this: baring a miracle, when it's all over for Interplay, it's all over for Freespace; it will become a mothballed license in a file folder somewhere.

 

Offline Singh

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Interplay Employees sent home?
Does that mean that I can 'sneak' in and 'aquire' these liscences when nobody is interested or looking? ;7
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