HitokiriX ![$posts[username] is a male](http://www.romnation.net/rn/forumimages/male.gif "$posts[username] is a male")
Dio Slayer
Registration Date: 08-26-2003
Posts: 3,831
Location: Behind You!
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 Interplay in a steaming pile of trouble |
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In an incredibly surprising move and one of the largest examples of game producer/publisher negligence towards treatment of its employees in recent history, all of Interplay's offices have been shut down by the state of California after an investigation and inspection by state labor investigators. To make matters worse, they're on the verge of being evicted by their realtors for failing to pay their monthly dues.
According to the report, employee wages were often going unpaid, that all employees recieved no pay for the entire month of June, and the company was completely without workers' compensation insurance. A spokesman for the California Labor Commision by the name of Dean Fryer released the following statement:
"An employer has responsibilities when they open a business. The responsibilities include proper and timely payment of wages. It includes providing workers' compensation coverage in case there are injuries. If the employer cannot accommodate those basic issues of doing business, we cannot allow employees to work."
A specific list of fines and penalties are as follows:
A $79,000 fine served after the inspection, a $1,000 fine for each of the 79 employees on the payroll.
$179,000 in unpaid state back taxes.
$432,000 in unpaid rent from Arden Realty, their landlord, with threat of eviction.
A pending lawsuit by BioWare for $156,000 related to Baldur's Gate royalties.
Interplay CEO Herve Caen has, however, remained positive through all this, and his doing his best to spin the facts to his advantage:
"The company has not shut down. The state can’t do that. It can only let me not let employees work."
Various employees are also remaining loyal and hope that the company can get out of its current situation.
Currently the company is said to have a Fallout MMORPG in development and certain insiders have stated that this is their last ditch effort to get some company revenue going, and if it fails, its game over for them. No doubt the current closing and threat of eviction will put a large hamper on the game's development.
The future looks very bleak for interplay i've never been a fan of their games but i hope they can at least find some way to pay their employees the back bone of any good company
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