Interplay’s problems cause ripple effect

Publisher Interplay has run into some difficulties of late and has laid off around 60 members of staff. The company has just announced healthy financial results, mostly due to the strong showing of Baldur’s Gate 2, but this was not enough to inspire the confidence required to maintain the current workforce.

As a result of this, Microforte, one of Australia’s leading development houses, is rumoured to have suspended payroll to its employees. As well as what has been described as extreme negative cash flow, it is alleged that Interplay has withdrawn its funding from the company. It is unknown what will happen to the Fallout series or Citizen Zero, two of Microforte’s Interplay-published products.

In other news, Black Isle Studios is said to have canned its current project Torn. Shown at E3 in May this year, Torn was a classic graphical adventure title and was confirmed for PC and “other platforms.”

Black Isle is wholly owned by Interplay, though it is thought that the canning of Torn is not a direct result of Interplay’s troubles.