Interplay (Twists and Turns)

(information used and edited from wikipedia and other sources)

Interplay Entertainment is an American video game developer and publisher first founded in 1983 by Brian Fargo, Rebecca Heineman, Jay Patel, and Troy Worrel. It is considered one of the largest and most influential companies in the gaming industry due to its profound assortment of franchises and development studios. Well known franchises include Fallout, Diablo, The Lost Vikings, Earthworm Jim, Call for Arms, and Mass Effect.

Founding and Developing (1983-1988)
Interplay was founded in the early 80s during the video game crash of 1982. Due to the company being relatively small at this time and the market still under disarray, Interplay was specifically a developer as they developed games such as Mindshadow for computers such as the Atari VT2 and IBM PC in 1984 which was published by Epyx and ''Sierra. The company also began gaining ground with various games in the mid to late 80s such as the Bard's tale series, published by Electronic Arts. Nearing the end of the decade in 1988, Interplay began publishing their own games with popular games such as Neuromancer and Battle Chess'', which were ported to various systems.

Rise to Prominence (1988-1999)
While the the games it published in the 80s and early 90s were big steps for the company, Interplay did not truly become a force in the industry with the 1995 release of Descent. Being published by Interplay while developed by Parallax Software, the game was a hit for computer users and was a massive stepping stone for the company. This trend would follow suit with games such as Stonekeep and Fallout. It was also during this period that Interplay would began its expansion of market share with the buyout of blizzard, known for creating the lost vikings and the then upcoming Diablo, and Shiny, the creators of Earthworm Jim.

Modern Day (1999-Today)
Throughout its modern history, Interplay has made various acquisitions of studios that had close ties with the company, Including Treyarch, Bioware, and the aforementioned Parallax, to keep the company going. Some have criticized this move, even resulting in some employees in these studios to leave and create their own companies. It did not help when the company also faces serious competition from other prominent publishers and developers like Electronic Arts, LucasArts, Bethesda, and Valve. Despite this, Interplay does keep a prominent position in the gaming market and it is expected to stay that way for years to come.

Major Subsidiaries

 * Black Isle Studios
 * Blizzard Entertainment
 * BioWare
 * Shiny Entertainment
 * Treyarch Interactive

Major Franchises

 * Bard's Tale
 * Baldur's Gate (Bioware)
 * Call for Arms (Treyarch)
 * Carmageddon
 * Descent (Parallax)
 * Diablo (Blizzard)
 * Die by the Sword (Treyarch)
 * Earthworm Jim (Shiny)
 * Fallout (Black Isles)
 * Lost Vikings (Blizzard)
 * Mass Effect (Bioware)
 * MDK (Shiny)
 * Stonekeep