Interplay: The history of the fall
Interplay: The history of the fall
Company News - posted by Vault Dweller on Wed 1 December 2004, 14:08:21
Tags: InterplayNMA reports that Corith has posted an article called The Fall of the House of Interplay.
Why did Interplay crumble into dust? As I stated previously, we will never know, but Herve did make some major missteps that give us a hint.
Herve was not a gamer, nor much of a businessman. In the fall, prior to Interplay's closure. The company produced two, nearly identical products, one of which was ready prior to the Christmas shopping season. Although he had never played either one, Herve held back the completed product back until the first of the year when the second product would be ready, on the justification that they were different enough and they complemented each other. With such a view, it was obvious to everyone, that he had not played either. As a result, Interplay had no products for that Christmas season, resulting in a major loss of revenue.
Herve also failed to understand his consumer base. He came from making games for consoles (xbox, Playstation, gamecube) and pushed Interplay product line toward that market instead of staying with PC titles that Interplay had been renowned for. He also tried to milk a popular title with cheaply made games that had little to do with the original product, other than a similar name. Interplay's customers were not fooled, they knew crap when they saw it. Herve's games did poorly compared to titles created prior to his arrival.
Herve also made other poor decisions, although minor compared to the above, no doubt they contributed to Interplay's downfall. In a stroke of utter stupidity, he closed down the game division responsible for some of Interplay biggest sellers, and fired all its personnel only days after it created a working demo of a long requested sequel to one of Interplay's most popular titles.
Interplay is still there. Herve has a small office for him and three or four others. He's sold off most his rights to the games Interplay made in the past, and he claims he has plans for a massive game project, if he can only get somebody to give him money. Since he drove interplay's stock off nasdaq and down to the value of copper penny, I can only wonder who would be so foolish as to give him financing to repeat his errors.Herve's stupidity and greed were indeed legendary. Someone should put him in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most stupid man evar.
Spotted at: NMA
Why did Interplay crumble into dust? As I stated previously, we will never know, but Herve did make some major missteps that give us a hint.
Herve was not a gamer, nor much of a businessman. In the fall, prior to Interplay's closure. The company produced two, nearly identical products, one of which was ready prior to the Christmas shopping season. Although he had never played either one, Herve held back the completed product back until the first of the year when the second product would be ready, on the justification that they were different enough and they complemented each other. With such a view, it was obvious to everyone, that he had not played either. As a result, Interplay had no products for that Christmas season, resulting in a major loss of revenue.
Herve also failed to understand his consumer base. He came from making games for consoles (xbox, Playstation, gamecube) and pushed Interplay product line toward that market instead of staying with PC titles that Interplay had been renowned for. He also tried to milk a popular title with cheaply made games that had little to do with the original product, other than a similar name. Interplay's customers were not fooled, they knew crap when they saw it. Herve's games did poorly compared to titles created prior to his arrival.
Herve also made other poor decisions, although minor compared to the above, no doubt they contributed to Interplay's downfall. In a stroke of utter stupidity, he closed down the game division responsible for some of Interplay biggest sellers, and fired all its personnel only days after it created a working demo of a long requested sequel to one of Interplay's most popular titles.
Interplay is still there. Herve has a small office for him and three or four others. He's sold off most his rights to the games Interplay made in the past, and he claims he has plans for a massive game project, if he can only get somebody to give him money. Since he drove interplay's stock off nasdaq and down to the value of copper penny, I can only wonder who would be so foolish as to give him financing to repeat his errors.
Spotted at: NMA
