6/2: 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.
4/21: From the Gone Gold forums:
Originally posted by Rob_Merritt:
I think the watch is over. I saw via Quarter to three that nma-fallout had a rumor that they told everyone to go home and they were filing for bankrupcy. I sent an email to someone a knew that worked there (which was a surprise because up to last week I had assume no one I knew worked there still) The message came right back because they were in fact home. He confirmed they were sent home. He didn't get any real info. No one did. They don't know if it was a temporary work stopage in order to move or a permanet layoff.
/edit:
I'm getting a connect refused to interplay forums.
So I went to the redbull investment board and saw this:
I spoke with Luke Haase today, and he said that Vivendi and Avalon both owe Interplay money and that they are expecting payment from them sometime this week. Vivendi is currently going through a big transition in their management, and they are just now trying to catch up on things. Once Interplay receives the payments that are due to them, then they will make a formal announcement and immediately file with the SEC that they are now able to pay their rent, taxes, and payroll. They are expecting a payment in the range of 3 million dollars. Interplay is also right now in negotiations to sell an intellectual property to raise additional capital and has begun preliminary talks with several banks in order to raise money to fund all of their current and pending games.