Shutdown rumors swirl around Interplay
Unconfirmed reports say the troubled publisher's staff has been
laid off and its office has been shuttered; anonymous office occupant
says the rumors are "not true."
In mid-April, Interplay announced its 2003 financial numbers. While
the company's income was lackluster, CEO Herve Caen gave an optimistic
if guarded outlook for 2004, promising a new Kingpin game and the
possible resurrection of Fallout 3.
However, Interplay also filed papers with the SEC that showed it
was three months behind in its rent and was facing eviction from
its Irvine, California, headquarters. Two weeks ago, its official
site, www.interplay.com, went offline. However, its still-functioning
e-mail and phone system pointed to the fact that the company was
still in existence, even if it wasn't responding to inquiries.
Today, however, unconfirmed reports began to surface that the publisher
was indeed shutting down. Several stock-related and Interplay-game-related
sites claimed to have received reports from Interplay employees
that they were told by the company's human resources department
to file for unemployment insurance. According to some sites, staffers
were also told to collect their belongings by 5:00pm PDT on Tuesday
because the property managers were preparing to lock all Interplay
employees out of their Irvine offices. Other reports said the offices
would be closed at 5:00pm Friday, and movers had already taken several
major items of furniture and game memorabilia from the offices.
While numerous, none of the reports regarding Interplay have been
confirmed by any official sources whatsoever. Calls to Interplay's
offices were not returned, and e-mails sent to "@interplay.com"
addresses were bounced back. Calls to Interplay's corporate parent,
Titus Interactive Group, were also not returned. Representatives
for Interplay's landlord, Los Angeles-based Arden Realty, would
confirm that the publisher was a tenant but would not comment on
the publisher's rental status as of press time. "I simply can't
comment on that," said an Arden executive.
[UPDATE] Early Wednesday, the voicemail system at Titus' American
offices ceased to function. An early follow-up call to Interplay's
offices got an actual person on the line for the first time in over
a month. When asked if Interplay was going out of business, the
person said, "No, that's not true," but refused to elaborate.
When asked if she was an employee of Interplay, the person said,
"I'd rather not say," and promptly transferred the call
to Herve Caen's personal mailbox. Caen had not responded to the
voicemail as of press time, and several subsequent calls to Interplay's
main line were met with a busy signal. As of 1pm Wednesday, the
line was still busy.
However, even if the reports of Interplay's demise are greatly
exaggerated, the company faces a rough road ahead. Besides its rental
woes, the company is facing a battery of lawsuits, including one
by Arden Realty for $432,000 in back rent and another by BioWare
for $156,000 for unpaid Baldur's Gate royalties. During its financial
report in mid-April, Interplay declared it had only $1.2 million
in cash on hand.
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot POSTED: 06/01/04 06:19PM
What does it all mean? It means the end of Trek games for quite
a while as new trk games looks as hopeless as any future movies
being released.
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