Interplay Pitches Fallout MMO, Despite Dearth Of Cash

Thanks to Yahoo! for reprinting an Interplay press release discussing Interplay's latest financial results, ruminating on possibilities for the embattled publisher. Although "the Company reported a net loss of $.9 million" for the quarter, a relatively small amount, Interplay's detailed financial statement reveals: "We currently have no cash reserves and are unable to pay current liabilities. The Company cannot continue in its current form without at this time obtaining additional financing." However, CEO Herve Caen is bullish about prospects, explaining: "We are now pursuing several options to fund our entry into Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming with titles including Fallout", a positive step, according to "...initial feedback from our investment bank and ongoing dialogue with others in the gaming sector." We've previously covered Interplay's recent financial woes.

Comments

Re:So your idea is...

[Drawkcab]

And not only is the MMOG market so saturated that MMORPGs have been getting cancelled left and right, but its one of the most expensive and time consuming genre to develop for. Not an ideal undertaking for a company that is narrowly avoiding bankruptcy. The Fallout games were great and I'd love to see more of them, but I don't think they'd be able to pull off an MMORPG right now.

A console RPG might work out well for them. Fallout seems like it could work really well for XBox or XBox 2, and the XBox could really use some more good RPGs in its lineup. A well done console Fallout title could be very successful, and it wouldn't take nearly as much time and money as an MMORPG, or face such stiff competition.

No, this could actually be good.

[TellarHK]

Look, folks. The real success behind Fallout was the story, the aesthetic, the locations, and the fact they put it together with some pretty good attention to the important things like gameplay. Remember that the original plan for Fallout was simply as a GURPS-based game that got re-worked near the end of development into the SPECIAL system that -did- work very well.

The real problem with this kind of development would be if they went and tried to make it turn-based-MMORPG. Then we'd just have to kill them all.

If they do something similar to a City of Heroes environment, without the mind-numbing quest for items and other crap like you have in more traditional MMORPG places, it'd go over quite well.

What we need is a 3d non turn based Fallout 3

[glowimperial]

That doesn't totally suck and has the magic storylines of the original series. I love turn based games, but frankly, they are going the way of the dodo and I want Fallout 3 to succeed in the mss market so it can stay alive. A Fallout MMO would be hard to do. Key to the whole Fallout feeling is being the Chosen One and wandering the wilderness alone, ala Mad Max. I don't want to play a fallout game with folks spamming "selling power armour, 100k caps!" in the center of every town. Fallout was all about the mystery of discovering a wonderfully crafted, funny, post apocalyptic world, alone. Bring the magic back one more time folks.

Re:What we need is a 3d non turn based Fallout 3

[AdamPiotrZochowski]

The 3d they have done, atleast from screenshots of Fallout 3
and from the xbox Fallout:BOS.

I dont have anything against the game being non turn based,
but give me the ability to play turn based.

I loved the idea that the game never really was a clone
of diablo where finger twiches are actually an advantage.

ofcourse this causes problems for the game to be MMO, but
then Civilisation / HOMM3 play online quite well, and
Fallout:BOS Tactics also did have a fake real time mode.

--
/apz, Far duller than a serpent's tooth it is to spend a quiet youth.

Re:FOOL

[prockcore]

Part of what makes Fallout, Fallout, is its turn-based strategy. That goes away in a MMORPG.

It does? How so? Fallout was only turn based during combat. I don't see why it wouldn't work in a MMORPG environment.

Besides, what made Fallout was the environment and the no-rules feel of the game.

I'll bet someone else will make the MMORPG

[mutewinter]

Since they are out of cash, I'm guessing they will liscence Fallout to another company to make the MMORPG. I don't have to tell anyone here that the MMORPG market is over saturated right now. Even if the game is a success we all know they are looking at 4+ years of development which would translate into just another money drain for them -- not what they need right now. An up-front liscence fee from a big company like EA could be the cash injection the company needs. I'm just suprised their whole company hasn't been gobbled up yet.

Re:FUCK THAT SHIT

[ultranova]

Troika -> Arcanum
a big game that industrilizes fantasy.
you got magicians traveling in trains.
amazing marriage of sci-fi and fantasy worlds.

Actually, you don't get magicians traveling in trains, because magick screws up technology. No, the mighty mages have to either teleport or walk.

You know, the teleport spell is my only real complain about Arcanum (aside from it not working on Linux ;): you can't just select a place from the map, you have to target a location that has a "marker". It's annoying.

That, and you can't blow up the buildings with dynamite. I tried, figuring it would be a good way of getting rid of a few of the criminals in the slums of Tarant, and they just became angry, despite having stood just on the other side of the thin wooden wall.

Old times

[Doctor Cat]

I remember pitching my first MMORPG, DragonSpires, to Interplay back in 1994. Their company president at the time was looking to get started with a project for about half the budget I was asking for. I talked to their producer a bit about how we could do something on that size budget. Then we met with the president briefly, showed him what I had, and he explained why he'd rather do a game based on their D&D license. Sounded plausible to me. Back to the producer's office, and he says "Ok, what I think we should pitch to him is that we simultaneously develop a D&D game AND your game with your engine". I was speechless. Didn't that just double the budget back up to what the prez had said was more than he wanted to invest into the MMORPG market right then? Sure enough, he decide to pass on his producer's proposal.

Given how they did with things like Engage Games Online, frankly I'm glad they said no. Interplay did manage to publish some very good games over the years, but their management was always kinda strange as far as I could tell. (Hopefully they don't have enough nickles left in the petty cash drawer to get a lawyer to sue me for saying they were strange. :X)