Company News Is Interplay Finally Dead?

[Sol Invictus]

Tags: Interplay

According to this <a href=http://www.gamekult.com/tout/actus/articles/A0000038441.html>article</a> at GameKult, it appears that Titus Interactive has been liquidated, along with all of its assets (including Interplay). Here's a rough translation until Spazmo or someone else who speaks good French can provide us with something better:
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<blockquote>It is the end of the adventure for Titus Interactive . The commercial court of Meaux pronounced Monday the bankruptcy of the French editor and his subsidiary companies, Sofra Jeux (edition) and Avalon France (in the past Virgin Interactive, distribution). Interplay , the held American subsidiary company with 62,25%, is also liquidated. Placed in legal rectification on June 7, these companies had profited from a grace period until February 7, 2005. But the court decided to put an end to this deferment before the expiry: the total liability of the Titus group exceeded the 100 million euros for a sales turnover fallen to less than 20 million euros, and losses evaluated to 103 million euros in 2003. Founded in 1985, Titus knew its hours of glory at the end of the Eighties, beginning of the Nineties, with the plays of the series Crazy Cars and Prehistorik Man</blockquote>
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Can the hour finally be at hand? I hope that this also means that Fallout Online (Codenamed FOOL) is scrapped for good, though I don't think the guys developing BAWLSerium will be too happy to hear about this.
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Thanks to <b>Pope Viper</b> for forwarding this to me.
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Update: Here's the <a href=http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=IPLY&read=1231>official press release</a> stating that Titus and all of its assets have indeed been liquidated (Thanks Teatime):
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<blockquote>(Circle Finances) - In a report published Wednesday, the editor of video game company Titus Interactive announces that after an intermediary audience during the observation period, the Commerce Court of Meaux decided to pronounce the judicial liquidation for all the entities of the placed June 7 last Group in judicial redressement.
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The corporations concerned by this decision are Titus Interactive HIS (holding company of the group), and Sofra Games SARL (editor of games), GIE Titus Interactive (administrative) and Avalon France (distribution).
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Titus Interactive as well as its three affiliates had been placed at the beginning of June in redressement judicial by the Commerce Court of Meaux.</blockquote>

 

[Whipporowill]

So... who's the winner of the death betting pool if this turns out to be legit?

 

[Pope_Viper]

And like Odin said over on NMA, what does this mean for the FO license?

 

[Whipporowill]

If Bethesda just licensed it, shouldn't it be sold with the rest of Interplay's holdings (what a joke, incidentally!) or go to the creditors? I wouldn't know if Beth gets to keep it and just have to pay dividends to someone else, or if the deal is just void. Interesting...

 

[Sol Invictus]

Well I don't know how the law works, but I'd assume that bearing that the deal was already made, I think that the new owners of the Fallout license would have to uphold the contract for the development of Fallout 3 (as it is already in development) for a short term, and that the money they are supposed to pay (or have paid) Interplay would go to whoever buys the liquidated assets though the contract may very well be declared null and void.

It's hard to say.

 

[Whipporowill]

B t w - we don't actually know Fallout 3 is in development, do we? I'd say it's probable that some sort of pre-production has begun, but last thing we heard, although a few months ago, there wasn't even a team.

 

[Volourn]

Good riddance to bad rubbage.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

DON U GET IT DIS JUST A SCAM TO FOOL PEEPS BALLERIUMS STILL GUNA GO STRONG!!!!

 

[Odin]

I've emailed Pete about this, hopefully he'll say something.....

 

[Whipporowill]

I've emailed Pete about this, hopefully he'll say something.....

I wouldn't count on it, but a few word from Bethesda PR could be interesting a t m...

 

[Spazmo]

Good riddance to bad rubbage.

No such thing as bad rubbage. Rrrowr...

Incidentally, sorry, but I don't speak legalese in any language and have no idea how to translate that newsbit. It's already pretty clear anyways.

 

[taks]

Interplay would go to whoever buys the liquidated assets though the contract may very well be declared null and void.

it depends on the contract i'm sure. it would probably also depend on what has already been paid (there was something paid at least, as herve used the proceeds to "restart" the company).

with liquidation, the one thing you can probably be sure of is that herve will no longer have any say in the outcome of the license (content control, etc.) not that he was ever qualified to have that say anyway, but he thought he was.

taks

 

[DemonKing]

I'm pretty sure Bethesda payed a one-off fee for the use of the FO licence (I think something like US$1.2million according to one of the old Ineptplay filings) so I would imagine that as the deal is pretty much done and dusted the liquidation of Ineptplay won't have any effect.

 

[fnordcircle]

Considering Interplay's state of affairs, I hardly doubt that the lawyers at Bethesda would agree to any contract that left Bethesda in a lurch if *shock* Interplay went fully tits up.

 

[Briosafreak]

I`m not sure of anything except the liquidation from the three companies. I`ll try to mail a couple of guys from the days we were hunting Interplay and they used to help out about the legal and finantial contexts, hope i can get them today.

 

[suibhne]

I'm pretty sure Bethesda payed a one-off fee for the use of the FO licence (I think something like US$1.2million according to one of the old Ineptplay filings) so I would imagine that as the deal is pretty much done and dusted the liquidation of Ineptplay won't have any effect.

Nope. My recollection, at least, is that BethSoft licensed FO for all future (PC?) titles with the sole exception of Interplay's reservation for MMORPGs. Given the exceedingly tenuous life of IPLY at the time of the agreement, BethSoft must have covered their collective ass in whatever contract they signed. Put another way, BethSoft almost deserves it if they get screwed by IPLY going under. :wink:

 

[mathboy]

Didn't Interplay keep rights too the Fallouts after no 6?

That means Troika can make FOOL and Fallout 7!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Would be funny to see Beth screwed, but I'm sure they probably thought of what might happen in case of liquidation. However, this means that the Caen Brothers will finally be dead in the game world. I wont hold my breath tho.

 

[Briosafreak]

Would be funny to see Beth screwed, but I'm sure they probably thought of what might happen in case of liquidation. However, this means that the Caen Brothers will finally be dead in the game world. I wont hold my breath tho.

Actually if Herve is really the "liquidateur", that means he can sell the 67% stake of Titus in Interplay to someone and remain within the company. Let`s see what happens.

 

[Whipporowill]

Isn't 67% of nothing still nothing? Who'd be willing to pay for that b t w?

 

[Lasakon]

With all the Ubisoft drama, maybe the french government will loan the Caen's money just so that there can be at least one big french publishing house.

 

[Grifman]

For the moment, I don't think this means anything for Interplay. Titus is being liquidated, not Interplay. Under liquidation, the assets of Titus will be sold off and used to satisfy creditors. Hence, what Titus owns is Interplay stock, virtually worthless, so that won't gain much for Titus' creditors, but I guess someone will end up with the stock.

If IP were 100% by Titus, the shares could be sold off/given out by the court, then the new owners of IP could determine what to do with it - sell off any assets, shut it down, etc. But Titus only owns a part of IP. So whoever owns it in the end, will still have to go through the motions of getting shareholder approval for any major actions - closure, liquidation, etc. They couldn't just take assets - if any - to satisfy debt, because IP has minority shareholders who theoretically have some share of those assets.

Grifman

 

[Briosafreak]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/05 ... 15737.html

This brings some clarity to what my doubts were

 

[Majnun]

I have no clue how such things work...so this is just thinking outloud really.

But wouldn't it be entirely possible for Bethesda themselves to buy Titus' 67% of Interplay's shares and effectively have almost complete control over the Fallout license?

I'm not saying whether that'd be a bad or a good thing (I'm holding off judging Fallout 3 till I actually play the game). I'm just wondering if something like that is a possibility. Surely those Interplay shares wouldn't cost a massive amount of money...and it seems like it would be in Bethesda's best interest to grab them if it's legal and they can afford it.

 

[Shagnak]

However, since the bankruptcy was from the district court where Titus' headquarters is located, it does not affect Titus' international subsidiaries which include: Cat Software, DIGITAL Integration, Uco Games and Avalon Interactive in Britain; Titus Japan; and Bluesky Software, Titus USA, and Interplay. In fact, the Agence-France Press news service quoted an unnamed source as saying that Interplay "continues to live for the moment."

Aaarghh.

The pus-riddled money-vampire that is Interplay continues to crawl.
Quick! Someone put a stake thru its heart while there is still time!