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Prime Operative
Hideous Freak of Nature
Joined: 01 Aug 2006
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 Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 22:12 Post subject: All your History: Interplay |
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I just found this series of 3 videos about the rise and fall of Interplay.
I'd like to see a more in depth documentary, but it's still an interesting watch.
Thought some of you might be interested in watching 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srdR55V7D-s |
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boer_kameel
Old Warrior of The Wastes
Joined: 02 Apr 2003
Posts: 260
Location: Antwerp, Belgium, Europe
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| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 19:57 Post subject: |
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Thanks, interesting watch!
Did you see Tim Cain's interview on Fallout?
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Xellos
Where'd That 6th Toe Come From?
Joined: 10 Feb 2006
Posts: 422
Location: Gdansk, Poland
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| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 23:00 Post subject: |
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Interesting yet very sad to watch, wondering how the history would flow if Titus didn't take over ...
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.Pixote.
Half-way Through My Half-life
Joined: 14 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 3:50 Post subject: |
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Titus were designed to fail, just look at their rubbish logo...WTF.
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Titus Interactive was founded in 1985 by brothers Eric Caen and Hervé Caen in Paris, France. They originally began releasing titles on the Commodore Amiga and PC, eventually moving on to home consoles. They also operated a US branch named Titus Software Corporation. The company went public on the French stock market in 1998.
After experiencing several years of rapid growth (at once point approaching the size of rival Electronic Arts), Titus made a number of what at the time were high profile acquisitions including BlueSky Software, Digital Integration, Virgin Interactive Entertainment (renamed to Avalon Interactive in 2003) and a majority stake in the also publicly traded Interplay Entertainment Corp. which was experiencing financial difficulties. After acquiring their stake in Interplay, Hervé Caen was named its CEO after co-founder and long time CEO Brian Fargo announced his resignation.
In the years following, Titus releases began a rapid and continuous decline in quality (the low points of which are the infamously awful Superman 64 and Robocop for the original Xbox), with few receiving even mediocre review scores and experiencing very poor sales as a result. They were also unable to turn around Interplay's fortunes, experiencing poor sales on their titles as well, even the few that reviewed well. Titus continued to pour their resources into Interplay, hoping that they would ultimately lead a return to success for both companies. This never happened and resulted in the sudden collapse of both companies (including all their subsidiaries) in 2004, leading to a number of highly publicized legal battles with employees, investors, developers, landlords and tax agencies, many of which are still ongoing. Eventually, the French government forced Titus Interactive into liquidation but named Hervé Caen as the person in charge of administring said liquidation, after which he reportedly promptly transferred what few assets Titus had left to Interplay, leaving investors with absolutely nothing. Interplay does continue to exist as a publicly traded company with Hervé Caen as CEO and is reportedly working on new internally developed projects. |
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Geech
It Wandered In From the Wastes
Joined: 02 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 5:18 Post subject: |
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| Xellos wrote: |
| Interesting yet very sad to watch, wondering how the history would flow if Titus didn't take over ... |
It's pretty safe to say that the counter-factual still wouldn't include a currently healthy Interplay. The company was going down the tubes well before Caen took over. |
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boer_kameel
Old Warrior of The Wastes
Joined: 02 Apr 2003
Posts: 260
Location: Antwerp, Belgium, Europe
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 0:28 Post subject: |
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Sad to see the masses getting bored by sequel after sequel now, when they wouldn't buy Interplay's original games when it mattered. Like lemmings down a cliff.
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Prime Operative
Hideous Freak of Nature
Joined: 01 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:53 Post subject: |
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Yup, quite informative. I'd love to see a similar interview on Arcanum. |
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