Games industry stalwart Interplay Entertainment has teased a relaunch, telling players to “prepare yourselves for the new Interplay”.
The company dropped the tease via Twitter, along with a GIF of the “Please Stand By” screen from Fallout.
Tomorrow, prepare yourselves for the new Interplay. pic.twitter.com/vKT9ObxRag
— Interplay Entertainment (@interplayent) July 27, 2021
Interplay developed and published the original Fallout game in 1997, and followed up with Fallout 2 – developed by its internal team Black Isle Studios – in 1998. In 2001, it published strategy spinoff Fallout Tactics, with all these games originally releasing for PC.
In 2004, Interplay released action-focused console spinoff Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel on PS2 and Xbox, before Bethesda Softworks acquired the Fallout intellectual property in 2007.
While the use of the Fallout GIF could be as simple as a nod to the company’s roots, it could also hint at a project related to the “Post Nuclear Apocalyptic Role Playing Game” that it helped create – perhaps remasters of the original entries?
Interplay was founded in 1983 by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca Heineman. Originally called “Interplay Productions”, its first release was Mindshadow, a graphic adventure loosely based on novelist Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity.
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The company’s breakthrough hit was The Bard’s Tale, which was published by EA. The game became one of the best-selling PC RPG of the 1980s. Over the years, Interplay would develop and publish titles on computer and consoles, including Alone in the Dark, Clayfighter, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, and Baldur’s Gate.
However, in 2016, following years of financial woes, Interplay sold off much of its IP. Since then, it has only announced Kingpin: Reloaded, a remaster of 1999’s Kingpin: Life of Crime, that it will be co-publishing with 3D Realms.
The only other clue so far is that the Interplay Entertainment Twitter account that posted the tease was only registered in July 2021, and describes itself as “a developer, publisher and licensor of video game software headquartered in Southern California. Relaunching October 2021.”
With no major IP left to its name, it will be fascinating to see just what the “new Interplay” will have to offer. Thankfully there won’t be long to wait, as the reveal is set for tomorrow (July 28).
Elsewhere, modern PC strategy title A Total War Story: Troy will finally be coming to Steam, along with a new expansion pack.