Interplay Resurrecting Black Isle Studios, Apparently

@domoslaf: Get your facts right:

If they make another game wtih the (real) Infinity Engine I'll forgive them for playing with my nostalgic emotions.

@iceman228433 said:

The real question is why did Interplay close them down in the first place? Also great news as far as I'm considered I love the RPG's they made.

Because Interplay hit serious financial problems so they closed it and let most of the remaining devs go. Also, by that point most of the original devs moved on to form Obsidian. There was no point in keeping it open.

While my emotional side is super excited about it my logical side is saying that it's merely a grab for attention. I am still interested in seeing where this leads.

Yaaaaayyyyy

Yippie!

Another RPG developer is always welcome in my book, and come on, these guys are called black Isle, they will surely follow in the old Black Isle's footsteps.

still playing icewind dale 2

GREAT GREAT NEWS

@damnable_fiend said:

@Palaeomerus said:

Kyuss

there's a Greyhawk villain called Kyuss? that makes that band name so much more awesome!

That band is actually named after Kyuss from Greyhawk.

Why not? Origin Systems now has their name whored out to EA's digital distribution system, so why not take the Black Isle name and drive that into the mud as well?

@teh_destroyer: Why would BG3 come out when the story already ended in a good way. Better make something new and equally awesome than rehash old greatness.

@dyong: ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME???

Dude that would be so awesome on so many levels!! I still play the old SSI games using WINUAE from time to time. The Dragonlance SSI games were very cool. They should just put up Eye Of the Beholder as a browser game...hell all of the SSI games on an SSI site. Get some light advertisements up on the grill.

Whoever has the rights should get right on that. I would be glad to help out with the coding.

Great now EA will provavly "ressurect" Bullfrog and Westwood just to rape their legacy a bit more jzst like Interplay just did. Yeah Im a tertible person and overly pessimistic but if "Black Isle" actually najes a good gane Im going to run naked down the street screaming "I WAS WRONG"

While this isn't the original Black Isle Studios, it could still be a studio in the vein of BIS. If it's a well-funded, excited dev team that wants to make awesome RPGs that have even 10% of the quality and character of those old BIS games, and if Interplay is throwing all their support into it... what's not to get excited about?

Let's be real: Interplay has been shit for a long, long time. This could be a genuine effort to get back into the game.

Interplay still exists? That's a surprise.

I think it's a bad precedent for publishers to slap the name of an old studio on a new one just to try and get people interested in its projects. If it has none of the same people working there, then it's not the same studio, and trying to act like it is the same is just deceptive.

OK someone probably already pointed that out, but what the hell.

BLACK ISLE *DID NOT MAKE* Baldur's Gate nor Baldur's Gate II. I know it's kind of "in" to hate on Bioware these days, but come on. Any less hype we can put on an obvious cash grab the better, so throwing Baldur's Gates in the mix is pretty ... I mean Patrick. I expected so much more from you. :/

Individuals, developers, make good games not companies. Change the name of Activision Value to Black Isle and it's still making the same junk it was before.

This doesn't really amount to much unless they're getting ex Black Isle staff back, which it sounds like they're not.

Other than that, it'll be like a new studio that'll have to prove itself before it can live up to the history of the original Black Isle.

Well, okay. Not as excited as I would have felt had it been SSI that rose from the grave to make Dark Sun and Eye of the Beholder again.

@aceofspudz said:

I would play a mediocre planescape game. But please, at least make it mediocre. Not bad.

Interplay doesn't even have the d&d rights anymore, so that probably won't happen. take heart though http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/21/ave-a-long-look-at-obsidians-planescape-sequel-wishlist/

With Chris Avellones comment, this feels real shady...

@TwoLines said:

It's not THE Black Isle though.

It is also not THE Interplay anymore.

I would play a mediocre planescape game. But please, at least make it mediocre. Not bad.

@teh_destroyer said:

Perhaps Baldur's Gate 3 can finally come out.

Rights are owned by Atari.

Perhaps Baldur's Gate 3 can finally come out.

The real question is why did Interplay close them down in the first place? Also great news as far as I'm considered I love the RPG's they made.

This is great news, in theory. But let's be honest, Interplay haven't had their shit together for years now. I can only see this as a ploy from Interplay to drum up interest by using a dead name. Colour me a skeptical pink.

One goes out, one comes in...

I really hope this'll be something respectful to one of the most kick-ass RPG developers of all time. But with this little information that's impossible to tell right now. Either way, good to know and I do hope Interplay doesn't just resurrect the name without doing the work and creating something special.

@ArbitraryWater said:

@Korolev said:

The name is back. The talent has long since gone.

And how are Interplay still around? Those guys haven't made..... anything.... for a very long time, except for a couple of ports of some flash games. Interplay have desperately been trying to convince people for years that it still is a game studio. But it's a shell, a hollow, dead shell of its former self lacking any ingenuity or talent - both of which have long since fled that company.

It's remarkable how Interplay still struggles valiantly on. A futile effort, I think, but there is something noble (or perhaps ridiculous) in how it keeps trying to shamble on like the zombie it is. A rotting carcass and no brain, mimicking life.

Honestly, I feel like the shambling corpse that is Interplay is secretly a front for the mob or maybe drug trade. At the very least though, we can probably thank them for keeping the rights to all those old games under one roof instead of falling into the abandonware or rights hole that a lot of other studios have. After all, we should never forget classics like Conquest of the New World or Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader, both of which will be forever immortalized on GOG (and consequentially, in my game library).

Can't speak for Conquest, but Lionheart shit right into my heart. I was so pumped for that game, the setting seemed great, and it turned out so mediocre in my opinion.

It is just a name now, so let's see.

At best this means noithing. At worst, this means that they are making a sequel to Planscape and it's a right piss up. The fact they put that butt ass ugly picture of the Nameless One suggests they still have IP rights to it, and thus technically COULD make one, which would likely totally suck.

...If they can pay more than their two employees anymore, that is. Fuck you, Hervé Caen.

@Tim_the_Corsair: dohoho

Interplay resurrecting Black Isle?

I didn't know Interplay had finished resurrecting Interplay.

DAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYUM

rise!

It's not THE Black Isle though. I'm looking forward to this, but I haven't played a good Interplay game in years now.

@Palaeomerus said:

Kyuss

there's a Greyhawk villain called Kyuss? that makes that band name so much more awesome!

@kycinematic said:

Planescape Torment is coming back as a gritty, realistic free to play first person shooter

Just let that bile work its way up

Somebody did the impossible last night. Somehow...they peeled the Lady and cracked Sigil wide open. Have you see the sky? What lies beyond the tear? The portals went black. All but one, and it doesn't go where it used to. They say the whole Abyss has moved...some where else. The blood war's flared back up. The gods are peering into the crack in Sigil and making their plans. Even the Dustmen are worried.

They say he's back. Somehow he's come back. Last night the guards saw him. Riding on the shoulder of Miska the Wolf Spider. Iuz. IUZ! Wielding black razor. And with him came Vecna and Kyuss, both bound in mystical chains. This old guy will go with you. Yeah, a bally dark elf with a cat. Hey, I don't know what his deal, is but he's talker. You can't shut him up sometimes. But he's good. So stick by him! Now, you two have to get out. I know it bleeds, but take that barmy portal to wherever it leads and go from there. Listen! You can do this! You know your way around the planes. You're no addle-cove. You're a real pathfinder. You've made your home in savage worlds. So it has to be you. YOU have to find Kas. Find that bitch Iggwilv. Find out what they know. And don't trust the Powers. 'Cause you can't. Do whatever it takes to stop IUZ. Before it's too late.

Maybe the Black Isle QA team stayed at Interplay?

Because they sure as fuck didn't go to Obsidian

If this works, I might just change my name to Elvis Presley and start doing live shows.

Another attempt to fool gamers with a name. As Jeff said recently about the EA/Bioware thing: they're trying to fool the wrong people. Everyone who gives a shit about this name knows what's up and where the talent behind it went.

Doesn't mean shit really. All of the old talent is long gone from Black Isle. And Interplay is a shell of its former self.

@Stonyman65 said:

@l3illyl3ob said:

Guys, don't get excited. This is Interplay. This means nothing. No game will get made, and if it does, it will have nothing to do with anything relating to the original Black Isle studio.

Sadly, Yes.

Just imagine what could have been done if Interplay/Black Isle was still a thing and making Fallout games. I'd like to think it would be much better than the "Fallout" games Bethesda made.

Bethesda only made one Fallout game. New Vegas was made by Obsidian, (albeit using Bethesda's engine and published by Zenimax) which in fact employs a bunch of people involved with the original Fallouts. Apart from Wasteland 2, that is almost certainly the closest to a new Black Isle Fallout game you're going to get

@iceman228433 said:

The real question is why did Interplay close them down in the first place? Also great news as far as I'm considered I love the RPG's they made.

They got bought out by Titus Interactive, then there where some lawsuits and then Interplay went public. After that, they laid off all of Black Isle, and then the former Black Isle guys started Obsidian.

@l3illyl3ob said:

Guys, don't get excited. This is Interplay. This means nothing. No game will get made, and if it does, it will have nothing to do with anything relating to the original Black Isle studio.

Sadly, Yes.

Just imagine what could have been done if Interplay/Black Isle was still a thing and making Fallout games. I'd like to think it would be much better than the "Fallout" games Bethesda made.

@Korolev said:

The name is back. The talent has long since gone.

And how are Interplay still around? Those guys haven't made..... anything.... for a very long time, except for a couple of ports of some flash games. Interplay have desperately been trying to convince people for years that it still is a game studio. But it's a shell, a hollow, dead shell of its former self lacking any ingenuity or talent - both of which have long since fled that company.

It's remarkable how Interplay still struggles valiantly on. A futile effort, I think, but there is something noble (or perhaps ridiculous) in how it keeps trying to shamble on like the zombie it is. A rotting carcass and no brain, mimicking life.

For a moment there, I thought I was reading a novel. You have a rich vocabulary sire :)

Blast from the past!

aaal riht the.

@Korolev said:

The name is back. The talent has long since gone.

And how are Interplay still around? Those guys haven't made..... anything.... for a very long time, except for a couple of ports of some flash games. Interplay have desperately been trying to convince people for years that it still is a game studio. But it's a shell, a hollow, dead shell of its former self lacking any ingenuity or talent - both of which have long since fled that company.

It's remarkable how Interplay still struggles valiantly on. A futile effort, I think, but there is something noble (or perhaps ridiculous) in how it keeps trying to shamble on like the zombie it is. A rotting carcass and no brain, mimicking life.

Honestly, I feel like the shambling corpse that is Interplay is secretly a front for the mob or maybe drug trade. At the very least though, we can probably thank them for keeping the rights to all those old games under one roof instead of falling into the abandonware or rights hole that a lot of other studios have. After all, we should never forget classics like Conquest of the New World or Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader, both of which will be forever immortalized on GOG (and consequentially, in my game library).