Daily News Spin — August 21, 2001 (Tuesday)

Interplay loses money

Not long after they lost their corporate soul to Titus, Interplay reported a quarterly loss as well. They lost $12.4 million, compared with a loss of $1.9 million in the previous year for the same quarter. Their revenue slumped to $14.8 million from $24.9 million. Here's an interesting bit from their press release.

Net revenues by platform for the first six months of 2001 were 76 percent PC, 15 percent console and 9 percent OEM, royalties and licensing. On a geographic basis, North America accounted for 74 percent of total net revenues, international represented 17 percent, and OEM, royalty and licensing accounted for 9 percent.

14 Degress East nothing but a brand now?

Freelancer has surmised that Interplay's strategy game division has been gutted and is nothing more than a brand at this point. Some Russianized English follows:

So, now it's time for us to give you the results of our investigation. Freelancer together with RGW have painstakingly hold a real inquest during which the staff of the above-mentioned company, who could not withstand that, lifted the veil of great secrecy. The division of strategic games - 14 Degree East - has been closed! As you might remember, almost right after Fallout Tactics release, Brian Christian has left the place of the director of the above-mentioned division as well as Interplay. It is this person whose head was occurred with the idea to create Fallout Tactics. We did not pay any attention to that then. But after the writer and the author of all texts - Den Levin - left the company I started to suspect that the division was shaking with fever, and that all these are nothing but the symptoms of a forthcoming tragedy. And so that happened. Together with stuff reduction within Interplay and TORN closing, the division of strategic games was closed! Perhaps this explains such a big number of dismissed staff - more then 50 persons! Of course, 14 Degree East is still the Interplay brand name. But today there are no real persons behind that brand name. Troubles never come singly!

Da, trouble never comes alone, except when it hasn't had a bath for a week and its companions, heartache and grief, refuse to be seen with it.

Homeworld 2

Sierra's addressed the rumors about the status of Homeworld 2.

We have not cancelled Homeworld 2.
We have not released Relic from their contract.
We have not made any sort of statement about Homeworld 2.
The negotiations with Relic regarding Homeworld 2 (which actually started long before E3) are completely divorced from the recent restructuring at Sierra.

If someone at Relic thinks the above things are true then they are mistaken. And there's no way we can predict when someone at Relic is going to contact one of you guys and say the things above.

We found this story at Blue's News.

The Wargamer asking for donations

Another site is going to the donationware model.

The bottom line is, it's been nearly 60 days since we've seen our last ad commission check from Cybereps and the next one is already late and will only be half of last month's, finalizing our parting of ways. This leaves us in a panic, trying to sell an ad inventory of nearly 4 million impressions across our sites in a very short time to generate revenue again before our ISP pulls the plug on our servers and the leasing company comes and collects their servers. But, it doesn't have to be this drab. We have another alternative, and one that has worked well for such high quality content offerings as National Public Radio and Public Television: Donations on the honor system.

Good luck to 'em. We noticed that Penny Arcade, another donationware site, has seen contributions decline each month. Thanks Jason!

3am

A reader writes in to Ann Landers for advice on dealing with his 57 year old wife who has become a computer game addict:

About two years ago, my 57-year-old wife started playing a computer game. At first, she would play a few times a week. Now it has taken over her whole life. She plays this stupid game every day of the week and sometimes until 3 a.m. I am sick and tired of going to bed alone.

We now have no sex life, and very little gets cleaned or cooked around the house. My wife used to have a lot of interesting hobbies, but she hasn't touched a crochet needle or a good book in ages. Talking to her about it does no good. She says she needs the computer game as an "escape."

Ann's response? "Get busy and pump some life back into your marriage. You can do it, but it's going to take real effort."

The US version of Operation Flashpoint is gold and should be in stores on the 28th. Finally!

John Woo to make a Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles movie? That's what Counting Down is saying with news they grabbed from Variety.

Variety reports: "Digital Rim has already produced a new animated "Turtles" TV pilot, which inspired the company to pursue the film rights. The pilot is currently being shopped at the networks. "I've always loved the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,' " Woo added. "It's one of the greatest action-adventure properties ever."

It's probably a marketing ploy, but Vivendi is claiming that some copies of Arcanum were exposed to toxic chemicals and it will delay the release of some copies in the UK. Eurogamer has the story.

We see that Warcraftiii.net is reporting that three hero units have been removed from the game: the Human Ranger, the Night Elf Archdruid, and the Orc Shadow Hunter. One Undead hero will be scotched too, but it hasn't been announced yet.

Meanwhile Diabloii.net has a look at the early reports on the v1.09 Diablo II patch. Lots of good info if you're a Diablo II player.

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