Interplay was bad all around. They lost BioWare to similar reasons. They cheated on the sales metrics (underreporting sales to Bioware ) on Baldurs Gate and ot

Interplay was bad all around. They lost BioWare to similar reasons. They cheated on the sales metrics (underreporting sales to Bioware ) on Baldurs Gate and other titles to scam them out their royalties but got caught. The resulting situation involving lawyers with Bioware walking with the in progress game and IP, the D&D 3.0 title Neverwinter Nights to Atari leaving Interplay without its even more successful innovator and dooming Black Isle. Fun fact - The master server design for neverwinter multiplayer was to large parts put in place to detect publisher royalty cheating not because of piracy concerns. And sure as hell Atari once tried to sell a large bunch of NWN expansion pack in Germany with copied keys, not understanding that the master server design meant uniquely issued keys rather than the 90s algorithmic ones. To this day Interplay lives as a zombified parasitic scam organism trying to attach itself to new opportunities every once in a while.