Interplay Shows Windfall Q2 Profits On Fallout IP Sale

Publisher Interplay has announced its second quarter earnings, showing sales of $5.8 million and profits up from $2.06 million to $5.46 million, based almost entirely on the sale of its Fallout license to Bethesda, as it reiterates plans to secure funding for a Fallout based MMO. Because of the windfall license sale, Interplay can boast that sales are up 2,431 percent over the same period in 2006, with half-year sales up 1,708 percent year over year as well. As previously reported, Interplay closed the sale of the Fallout rights in April for $5,750,000, and secured an exclusive and specific license itself to use the IP internally for the $75 million Fallout MMO it noted in SEC filings last December. Said Interplay chairman and CEO Herve Caen, "I am pleased with the progress the company has made, particularly with our debt load, which has improved from $59 million in December 2001 to less than $3 million today. With that difficult period behind us, we are focused on securing funding for development of a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) based on the popular Fallout franchise. Along with our strategy of leveraging our existing portfolio of intellectual gaming properties, Fallout Online will play a key role in the future of Interplay."