Ausir said:
Ugh, I hope that isn't what they're actually working on. I'd rather have a TES sequel than another stab-in-the-dark MMO.
FOOL developer quotes and court case update
- Thread starter WorstUsernameEver
- Start date
Ugh, I hope that isn't what they're actually working on. I'd rather have a TES sequel than another stab-in-the-dark MMO.
mobucks said:
Shards is also a programming term for databases so I assume that's where it came from?
Per said:
I believe the rumor is Masthead has provided the cash required.
You don't have to report it right away, just at the end of your quarter IIRC. There's a chance the funding requirements were met by Interplay, but it could have been last minute.
It's not just the contract that is unfavorable but the way Interplay was treated after that. The Fallout Wikia has some great articles about it, including letters between Herve and a few people from Bethesda. The way Bethesda was treating Interplay's requests meant that nothing could ever be done with anything. Requests to meet with ZeniMax's CEO and other employees to go over what Interplay wanted to do with the games was also ignored by Bethesda.
jdprince45
First time out of the vault
Sitting on the sidelines it does seem that Zenimax is being mean spirited here. I have high hopes for FOOL, although my expectations are a bit lower.
That said, i wonder how much of the legal battle Interplay can afford to fund. This would not be the first time a richer company had used the courts to beat a smaller opponet who could not afford the battle.
Course, interplay seems very hard to kill, as they have come back to life more times than a comic book superhero, so maybe FOOL will appear after all.
That said, i wonder how much of the legal battle Interplay can afford to fund. This would not be the first time a richer company had used the courts to beat a smaller opponet who could not afford the battle.
Course, interplay seems very hard to kill, as they have come back to life more times than a comic book superhero, so maybe FOOL will appear after all.
Interplay is more like the Enclave with herve as President
UncannyGarlic
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
Gotta agree that trial by jury for contract law is laughable but I'd think that it'd help Interplay if anyone, especially after Bethesda's embarassing appearance in the injunction hearing.
I think that they were basically arguing that Bethesda negotiated the contract in bad faith, which I'd tend to agree with from what I've seen and heard.Per said:
Actually they had to report it by the date specified in the contract and the "rumor" is baseless speculation with no evidence to back it up. Where the hell would Masthead get $30 million from?Elven6 said:
UncannyGarlic said:
I checked the dates and they did report it, publicly it was two days before the due date of April 4th but there could have been more going on behind the scenes before that.
http://interplay.com/about/article.php?id=26
Why can't Masthead have $30 million? They do have investors after all who could loan them cash.
It's not so much a rumor as speculating by putting two and two together, Masthead was providing financing for the MMO and Interplay had some cash themselves.
UncannyGarlic
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
I'm almost certain that Interplay claimed that the amount specified was unreasonable in the injunction and yes, it's unlikely that an independent studio who have yet to produce any products could get $30 million for another company's product. I'm almost positive that Masthead isn't even a publicly traded company so a bank load seems like the most likely source of funding aside from publishers (who wouldn't fund FOOL since it already has a publisher, amongst other reasons).Elven6 said:
So far all we have to go on about Interplay securing the funding is their word, something which isn't worth a whole lot with Herve at the helm. I haven't seen a single financial statement which shows the funding.
UncannyGarlic
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
I feel obligated to channel Corinth here, what was the last thing that they did that was so wonderful? Interplay isn't the same company that it was in the 90's, it's a completely different beast since Herver took over. The current Interplay is the company that brought us BoS instead of investing in Fallout 3, closed Black Isle, and had to be forced by the courts to pay their employees. In order to have a chance at being a good company, they are going to have to get rid of Herve and some of his upper level Titus staff.John B. said:
UncannyGarlic said:
Masthead has private investors (going by their site) so there is a possibility that they were able to raise the $30 million required. Nothing far fetched about that at all, they have been working on Earthrise for quite some time now and as we all know, you need a few millions to develop an MMO and launch it successfully so it's entirely reasonable that Masthead has some great funding behind them.
If funding is coming from Masthead I don't think Interplay would have to report it to the SEC since Masthead is a third party that isn't owned by Interplay.
The amount would be unreasonable for a company like Interplay since they didn't have very much at all with them at the time. It's difficult to go 0-100 within such a short time span. Herve in his pitch was relying on investments to get the job done, I guess the shape of the company and the economy didn't bring in the cash like he had hoped.
That being said, was Herve signing the contract a stupid move? I don't think so, like I've said before, Interplay today is in a far better position with or without the Fallout MMO than they were a few years back when liquidation was likely the only solution.
Interplay was already on a downhill spiral long before Herve became CEO or Titus acquired majority share of the company. People seem to forget Interplay began facing financial difficulties in the mid 90s long before Titus came onto the scene.
I don't know Herve so I can't speak on his behalf (or anyones for that matter) but Titus was a publishing giant that rivaled companies like EA, Acclaim, Midway, etc in its heyday. The brand to this day still holds a lot of sway in Europe in terms of following. Titus the Fox, Prehistorik Man, etc have some pretty dedicated followers. While they couldn't save it in the end, they did manage to run it successfully for nearly twenty years. While it's impossible to deny a few unwise decisions (in hindsight) were made under Titus, I wouldn't discount their abilities entirely.
Fallout aside, on the financial side of things Interplay seems to be making some interesting progress. They are developing internally again, publishing IP's,
And who is this Corinth I keep hearing about?
Isn't Titus the same company that gave us Superman 64?:
(Skip to 3:30 for relevant clip)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dJXgJ1c4vY#t=3m30s[/youtube]
(Skip to 3:30 for relevant clip)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dJXgJ1c4vY#t=3m30s[/youtube]
UncannyGarlic said:
Just like the old wives tale about saying the name of a demon invokes into being . . . .
Herve is a grade a twit. He has no talent, no business acumen, nor personal integrity. Devoid of talent and charisma his new interplay can not produce anything other than crap. His incompetence taints everything.
Beth pulled his pink-plump-rump out the ringer before I could shutter interplay, but hey, at least I got my money. Think about this, its been 6 years, and a smidge under 5 months since the Federal marshals padlocked interplay closed. Aside from few retreads, lots of cleaver stock manipulation bordering on insider trading, swindling french investors out of millions, and fighting one court battle after another, what has Interplay done?
Oh, wait, he converted his new web site from C# to LAMP.
Good job Le Frog.
Yep, and now they're trying to develop FOOL, yet another MMO that will be dwarfed and later crushed by the ever growing subscription base of WoW. REAL smart Interplay. /wrist
I lost all respect for Interplay when they closed BIS. And they demanded multiplayer for Van Buren; WTF was that shit? I'm also a fan of the Baldur's Gate series, so double hatred. How's it going with the NWN2 mod, J.E.?
TheWesDude
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
mobucks said:
incorrect, it was mondains crystal that was shattered and it created alternate realities which they based their shard idea...
the "worlds" uo happened in were not the world the official ultima story happened in
korindabar said:
Yes, back in the day I was this (||) close to renting the game on boxart alone. I think I dodged a bullet.
I think it actually sold decently for a game of that era.
Corith said:
Herve's business capabilities are simply down to what era you look at but without context you might not see the whole picture. I think how Interplay turns out now will be the end all be all decision maker. The cards are in position, lets see how they're played.
Legendary Wars (which is Interplay's first and so far only new internally developed IP) did pretty good critically from what I remember. Not sure how it sold but if they take the criticisms into consideration for the iPhone/iPad release I'm sure it'll do even better.
Those are also some pretty serious accusations, proof?
Elven6 said:
Haha!
Corith had to wring the money that interplay owed him from it's nearly dead body. At least that's what I remember from a few years ago. I'm sure he could rehash the story better than I could.
EDIT:
Which he basically said in his post - whoops!
What, no mention of BoS as a "successful" title? [sadlaugh]Lolololol[/sadlaugh]
Eh, yeah. It's not. That was more of a "He would know" post. But yes, proof is nice. Judging by Corith's posting habits, you're probably not going to get a reply from him. I would dig for the truth, but I really don't care enough about what happens(or happened) to Interplay or FOOL. YOU WIN!