DescentBB

I'm no lawyer, so someone with law experience: can you help us out?

Looks like Interplay is defaulting on debt and failing to hold its part of contracts. Let's just say that for all of the lawsuits where Interplay is being sued, only the most "conservative" numbers are disclosed so that the plantiff's lawyers don't get encouraged (per accounting rules). Interplay could lose all the law suits and actually pay a lot more than what is shown here.

Notable:
* They have $20,000 of receivables on the books. That's after they've written off $2,370,000 that they expect not to collect.
* They are losing money, but their losses are slowing.

If they used to be a great company, you could not tell from this. They're going down. They will be going out of business real soon.

I thought Interplay was one half holder of Descent rights.

Interplay owns the Descent trademark. Parallax Software holds the copyright to Descent 1 and 2, and the rights to develop Descent 4. Outrage owns the copyright for Descent 3. The plan was for Parallax to transfer its development rights to Volition, but that was nixed when THQ bought [V].

Ahh Thank-You!

Just another case of too many fingers in the pie.

So wouldn't the rights for developing a Descent 4 become very cheap at the "fire sale", or abandoned altogether?

Like I said, it's not their right. The development rights for Descent 4 belong to Parallax Software, Inc., a company with two employees: Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog, both of whom work for THQ. They won't relinquish that right, though upon the death of Interplay they may sell it to THQ. THQ could then offer to pick up the Descent trademark upon Interplay's liquidation, and then one company would hold all the rights to the Descent franchise.

There is a lot of "ifs" in Descent ever being made again. Im suprised nobody's made a graphic for Descent's improbability of coming back.

I believe it was a picture of the Iraqi Information Minister.

I don't really want to think too much about THQ carrying on Descent.

It won't. There's no point to creating the fourth in a series that was last updated about six or seven years ago and was a commercial bomb.

The most likely thing is that some studio creates a "Descent-like" game without using the trademark. That's if, and only if, it's something that could prove commercially viable. I question that. It's not as if Descent lived past 3, nor that Acclaim ever made a second Forsaken.

But who knows. Seems like most console games today are just as complicated as Descent was to control.

Well Acclaim has a history of half-bombs just like Interplay. One could chalk up the failures of both Descent and Forsaken to inept marketing and design. Plus, Acclaim developed all of its failed games in-house (self-contained publisher and developer). With enough money, one could possibly turn a Descent-like game into a profitable venture. [V] had it right when they were heading toward Red Faction, but unfortunately they got wrapped up in the Geo-Mod technology and were primarily targeting the console market, especially after the THQ buyout.

I think you hit it on the head DCrazy; you too Kyouryuu. I think the best "hope" we have for anyting remotely like Descent is the Dm3 mod being worked on.

That Doom3 mod is looking really good, but don't forget about the project that Suncho is heading. If anybody can make a Descent game right, I think Suncho can. I just hope they don't run out of steam.

Personally, I'm not really psyched to play Descent2 in Doom3, if that's what they're heading for (nothing against it, but, being a D3 player, I just don't get D2 nastalgia). I'd like a new Descent, whether it's called that or not, and it needs to mop the floor, walls, and ceiling with all of its first-person-shooter peers.

I think if people started demanding it, all over the world, like a hary potter game or a starwars movie... they'd make it....

Sergeant Thorne wrote:Personally, I'm not really psyched to play Descent2 in Doom3, if that's what they're heading for (nothing against it, but, being a D3 player, I just don't get D2 nastalgia). I'd like a new Descent, whether it's called that or not, and it needs to mop the floor, walls, and ceiling with all of its first-person-shooter peers.

X2

The original Descent didn't bomb, and version 2 sold fairly well also.

But by the time Descent 3 came out the market had changed; people had moved on from the 'experimental' phase, largely, and it lost its market. Plus it wasn't a good enough game to change much in its own right anyway.

IMHO it's just too hard for 'normal' gamers to grasp so therein lies the fault(o well, there loss). Seems all my friends shy away as soon as the killing really starts. I get a kick out of inviting a friend over to check out this "cool game I play online" then watching the look of horror(really)wash over their face when I get maxed again and again by one o' you veteran players...lmao

I try and convert as many groundpounders to Descent as possible.

One sound tech I know gets vertigo from watching and playing Descent. Yet he loves it.

I asked him how he deals with it and he said, "I just play until I get too dizzy or sick, lay down for 15 minutes, then go play it again!"

What a trooper!

I think the real reason Descent didn't take off is poor marketing, and the lack of blood and gore that was and still is being promoted.
Well that and the controls do require a steep learning curve.

now THAT is hardcore!

i miss nTrap

...you miss a game that wasn't released?

Or miss the hype?

man i loved the hype. i was a hype CONSUMER, i ate all the hype and it didn't come close to enough to satisfy so i made my own hype - rambled and ranted and rambled, like a little kid excited by science.

and then i made my way to the DBB, and here i am. almost 4 years later.

mmmmm where it all started.

Acclaim did market Forsaken in print ads. It was a large endeavor - it appeared on the main systems of the period: the PC, PSOne, and N64. If it was successful, I'm sure Acclaim would have made another one. I tire of the "marketing" excuse. What is a "good" marketing campaign? Tie-ins to movie trailers? Cardboard stand-up displays at the store? Premium shelf space? All of that costs a lot of money. Look at the games that get this sort of treatment - surefire cash cows like Madden 2006 or the newest Mario game. Rarely are they used to promote a game that has a meager following at best. Most are just confined to magazine ads and maybe a television commercial if they are lucky. No amount of marketing can force gamers to accept a game that they just don't care for.

The gaming public just doesn't care for Descent. Call it whatever you want, that's the simple truth.

D3 did bad because it just wasn't a good enough game, and many argue its because it was not as good as Descent 1 and 2. No amount of marketing can fix that. It lacked alot of fundemental elements that made D1 and D2 entertaining and thus it was never picked up by the mass public. Thats it.

Canuck wrote:One sound tech I know gets vertigo from watching and playing Descent.

That seems to be a common problem. I have known of a few people that get motion sick while playing any version of Descent.

Top Wop wrote:D3 did bad because it just wasn't a good enough game, and many argue its because it was not as good as Descent 1 and 2. No amount of marketing can fix that. It lacked alot of fundemental elements that made D1 and D2 entertaining and thus it was never picked up by the mass public. Thats it.

Just out of curiosity, what elements do you feel it was missing?

Dedman wrote:

Canuck wrote:One sound tech I know gets vertigo from watching and playing Descent.

That seems to be a common problem. I have known of a few people that get motion sick while playing any version of Descent.

You want to know something strange? I get that from vertually every consol based game I play, PlayStation, Xbox, etc. I also get that from most ground pounder stile games on the PC. But the wierd thing is, is that Descent just does not cause that in me.

People think Descent is too old! They dount even give it a glance.
It is soooo hard to organise a LAN party nobody wants to play
Face it Descent is dying. But we can save it!!!!!

Top Wop wrote:D3 did bad because it just wasn't a good enough game, and many argue its because it was not as good as Descent 1 and 2. No amount of marketing can fix that. It lacked alot of fundemental elements that made D1 and D2 entertaining and thus it was never picked up by the mass public. Thats it.

I second Dedman's question; what did you feel that D3 lacked? I personally think that it's the best of the series, and I started out with playing D2 singleplayer.

i only get motion sickness from games that are boring.
serious.

Kyouryuu wrote:Acclaim did market Forsaken in print ads.

And Descent had a TV spot. Unfortunately the original's popularity (which was also due in large part to the "viral marketing" that was the Apogee/Shareware model) wasn't enough to carry the sequels, which is what Interplay banked on. I mean, come on. "Interactive Demo"? That doesn't even sound entertaining.