Interplay seems to be bringing back Black Isle studios. You can see the evidence on
its homepage.
Now, before you get excited, let's have a little refresher course:
- Interplay doesn't consist of the same people as it did back when Black Isle still existed.
- Brian Fargo, the original founder of Interplay (who hasn't worked there for years and years), had this to say on Twitter about the news: "A game division is obviously only as good as the talent it employs."
- If Interplay employs any talent, I haven't heard about it.
- Interplay famously fired almost all its employees years ago and has been running with a skeleton crew ever since. They sold off the Fallout property but tried to weasel themselves into still making a Fallout MMO (and trying to sell Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics as "The Fallout Trilogy" in a sleazy move that pissed off Bethesda. They were unable to fulfill their part of the MMO deal and lost the property completely.
- Black Isle as we knew it is more or less the same company as Obsidian these days. Those people still work there. They do not work at Black Isle.
- Interplay is desperate to earn any kind of money.
- Today's Interplay is run by businessmen, not gamers.
With all of that in mind, I predict this new Black Isle will crash and burn before they can even release a product. I predict a huge amount of ecstatic posts all over the internet when the news break for real, followed by a cold shower by anyone who is actually familiar with this company.
