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Whither Black Isle, whither Interplay?

Posted by Garrett @ Tuesday - December 11, 2001 - 10:22 -
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RPG Vault's Jonric has posted some interesting thoughts about the future of Interplay & especially their RPG subsidiary Black Isle: after the cancellation of TORN, the release of the PS2 title BG: Dark Alliance and the loss of Neverwinter Nights (RPGDot reported), the company has no RPG announced at the time being, and...:
    It’s also interesting to note that Interplay as a whole has shown a sharp decline in activity this year, at least as measured by number of releases. According to the company’s press release about its third-quarter financials, it released seven titles from the beginning of 2001 through the end of September, including none at all during the third quarter. Since it shipped 26 during the same period a year ago, this represents a decline of almost 75 percent. Sales have also fallen substantially, with net revenue for the nine months reduced by just over half, from $73.8 to $36.3 million. In the same year to date period, operating losses have soared, from $4.5 to $38.0 million.

    What does the future hold for Interplay and especially for Black Isle? A couple rumors are currently circulating. One of these has Interplay leaving the publishing arena to concentrate on development. This would return the company to its roots; you may recall that classics like Wasteland and The Bard’s Tale series were published by EA. Lending some credibility to this possibility is the distribution agreement entered into with Sierra, although there are other rumors that internal politicking was involved in this step. Another one, albeit one that has made the rounds before, is that Interplay will be acquired by one of the publishers that are currently acquiring developers. This time around, Microsoft’s name has been mentioned most often, followed by Infogrames.
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