Beware the Black Isle

Over the past few days, Interplay put up a minimalist web site heralding the return of Black Isle Studios, in an attempt to harness the nostalgia of Baldur's Gate, Planescape, and Fallout fans after seeing the recent interest in classic CRPGs.  You might be confused -- didn't nearly every single Black Isle staffer land at one of a handful of studios that are still making games?  Your suspicion would certainly be warranted -- and, as it appears, this new "Black Isle" likely isn't what you're hoping for.

To understand Interplay's current predicament, and the history of this mysterious Black Isle launch, you need to look at what happened to sink Black Isle in the first place.
The Decline and Fall of Black Isle
In 1998, Interplay goes public after hurting for quite a bit of money. Despite quite a hefty catalog, including Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Earthworm Jim, MDK, ClayFighter, Bard's Tale, Battle Chess, and a host of Star Trek titles, it had missed the boat with the early popularity of the Playstation, and was looking to recoup gains.  A majority share was given to Titus Interactive, the creator of the stellar hit Superman 64.  Brian Fargo, the man who created Interplay and brought about many of the titles that defined the PC game market, was pushed out, and replaced by Herve Caen, then-and-current CEO.

My mustache brings all the boys to the yard.

Herve makes the decision to take the company in a new direction.  Instead of using in-house developers, Interplay would contract with independent development studios to make games based on its licenses. In 2001, Interplay first contracted out the Fallout license to Micro Forte for Fallout Tactics, and the Baldur's Gate and Dungeons and Dragons licenses to Snowblind to develop Dark Alliance, an action RPG.  This freed Black Isle to work on as-yet unnamed projects.
Black Isle happily began developing TORN, a fantasy RPG, and Icewind Dale 2.  After middling success with Fallout Tactics and a lukewarm welcome from fans wanting Fallout 3, Dark Alliance provided the company with a much needed windfall, giving the company hope even as the NASDAQ de-listed their stock.
Caen backpedaled, canceling TORN and having Black Isle work on Dark Alliance 2 after Icewind Dale 2 released.  The title was finished, and Black Isle was again freed to work on a project.  They began Project Jefferson, which would have become Baldur's Gate 3, and develop Lionheart, a fantasy title using Fallout's system.  Jefferson was destroyed when Caen decided to make a Fallout action RPG using the Dark Alliance engine, creating the (atrocious) Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.


Snowblind, meanwhile, took Interplay to the cleaners in a year of court battles over their use of the Dark Alliance Engine.  Reeling from financial difficulties, and focusing entirely on Dark Alliance-style games, Herve shuts down Black Isle, releases all of its employees, and cancels project Van Buren, a pet project of Black Isle that was shaping up to be Fallout 3.  After losing the suits, Caen loses the D&D trademark to Atari and the Dark Alliance trademark to Snowblind.

Race You To The Bottom
Thinking quickly, Herve looked at the huge library of IP he had been sitting on -- the very thing that had almost singlehandedly saved the company.  He sold Fallout to Bethesda for a few magic beans, and the initial promise that he could keep selling the original Fallout titles and that they would only develop a handful of Fallout games.  Then, he needed more money.  They gladly obliged, funding Herve's empty office and legal fees in exchange for the Fallout license and a promise that he would only make a Fallout MMO.  He takes them up on the deal, and hurriedly pieces together a team for an MMO, reminding himself that World of Warcraft's revenue stream has a higher GDP than most countries.  He sinks his remaining funds into this MMO, aiming to create what amounts to...
Well, absolutely nothing.  Bethesda brings suit, claiming Herve has no right to keep selling Fallout titles, and claiming he is illegally developing an MMO.  Herve and Bethesda fire back and forth, but this amounts to the deathknell of Fargo's baby.  Interplay is dead, and the shuttering of Black Isle did nothing to slow the sinking.  Titus declares bankruptcy.  Herve is left alone, and isn't heard from for quite some time.

The Flesh of the Living
Interplay let Gameloft use the license of Earthworm Jim, bringing a sudden burst of cash.  Herve used this to publish further independent games, ultimately funding only a pinball title.  He then licensed MDK2 to get another windfall, and has most recently had a studio completely fail at a Kickstarter campaign to re-release Battle Chess.  This new pattern has me believing the resurrected Black Isle studio is one of two things: either an attempt at licensing old franchises out, in the manner of Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, or an attempt at making a play at the Kickstarter audience for CRPGs Brian Fargo has already managed to drum up -- or a combination of the two.  Either way, no prior Black Island developers are involved in the new abomination, and Herve is just using the name to take your money.  I, for one, am incredibly suspicious of anything coming out of this zombie.  This is a man who took a company that was made "By Gamers For Gamers," ignored established fan bases in favor of re-creating an action RPG using a stolen engine, and then threw his own staff, IP, and fanbase under a bus for a quick cash-out, and now he's begging you to take him back, promising he'll treat you better this time, with a handful of grocery store roses and a Snicker's bar.  This is the man that killed Baldur's Gate III, Fallout 3, and the mysterious TORN, used the Black Isle name to dilute his IP to the point where he thought Fallout was primarily about dominatrices, masturbation, and promiscuous sex.

I couldn't make this stuff up. You'd think he was playing Thrill Kill or something.

Meanwhile, I'll look to the pairing of inXile and Obsidian on Wasteland 2 to provide true old-school CRPGs, without a creepy Frenchman and his little mustache, too.

For more about the death of Black Isle, and Fallout 3-related shenanigans, read NMA's Glittering Gems of Hatred article.  I used NMA to help me remember the specific order these things happened in, and the picture of Herve is in their archive.