Interplay Resurrecting Black Isle Studios, Apparently

People are looking at this the wrong way. The name is just to invoke the idea that they are going to make old school RPGS. It doesn't mean anything else. Its easier for them to go "wait, we own the Black Isle name lets use it", than come up with a name that screams "OLD SCHOOL POINT-AND-CLICK RPG".

Wait, what!? I don't even know who's behind Interplay now, let alone the return of Black Isle.

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.

Yo, if old Black Isle is truly back, consider me very excited.

If EA can do it to Bioware, why not?

But you know what? Even though it's just a grab at nostalgia, if the team they ultimately put together is making games in a similar style and they still manage to put together some talented individuals, it's still a good thing.

Word??

Obsidian are the real Black Isle. this isn't going to fool anyone :/

Hey guys, check it out, I'm going to make a game studio. It's going to be called Bullfrog. I'm going to make a spiritual successor to Magic Carpet called Arabian Knights. It'll be a third person cover based shooter with tactical squad elements and RPG elements in it. It'll be great!

I don't need a publisher that rose from the grave and published... nothing so far to pull on my heart strings, invoking pleasant memories with people who have moved on to other places.

Wow, I didn't know Interplay was still around.

Reusing the name for a studio apparently consisting of zero former staffers seems like a desperate grab for name recognition. It feels really sleazy.

Interplay coming back doesn't really mean much if it's not by the people who helped make those games great. If it's a whole new set of devs and designers then it might as well be an all new game company.

Hopefully this isn't just to capitalize on a beloved IP.

Most of the people from Black Isle are at Obsidian anyways so this seems like a transparent attempt to bank on name recognition.

Most of the people from Black Isle are at Obsidian anyways so this seems like a transparent attempt to bank on name recognition.

Interplay still exists?

Considering no one from the original Black Isle will be part of this I don't see any reason to be excited or even care.

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

Just let that bile work its way up

While this is all great and stuff, it won't be the same.

@LordAndrew said:

Anyone who remembers the Black Isle name fondly knows that the talent is long gone. What does Interplay actually plan on doing with this new "Black Isle"? Will we care?

@outerabiz said:

wait, so whos making this? surely all or most of the black isle crew (which is also the name of my new 80s hip hop label) have moved on to obsidian or other studios.

I'd expand the question to "What and who is Interplay nowadays?". The founder - Brian Fargo works at inXile now, and those who didn't join him have their own studios. Apart from Obsidian, there's Volition, Double Helix - even Blizzard has Interplay roots, but the entity that today is known as Interplay seems to be the remains of Titus Software, with few to no ties to the original team, and mostly famous for the stellar N64 title Superman.

@LordAndrew said:

Anyone who remembers the Black Isle name fondly knows that the talent is long gone. What does Interplay actually plan on doing with this new "Black Isle"? Will we care?

Interplay will continue to not make games and whatever games they do make they will stick Black Isle on and hope people think that the old Black Isle made it.

I don't understand why anyone is exited for this, when they should be worried about what Interplay is going to do to the integrity of that name. Black Isle without any of the talent that used to work there is not Black Isle; those guys and gals moved on after the closure, to Troika and Obsidian -- and the folks at Obsidian aren't going to suddenly jump ship just because Interplay decided to pull a name out of a filing cabinet and dust it off.

My teacher was a part of Fallout 2 does this mean I don't have to take his class next year.

Hey Blizzard still sells tons on the name rather than the talent that left even before World of Warcraft. Why wouldn't they try it?

Anyone who remembers the Black Isle name fondly knows that the talent is long gone. What does Interplay actually plan on doing with this new "Black Isle"? Will we care?

So its going to be like new Infinity Ward in name only without any of the good creative minds behind it. That won't go well if hey don't get good people to staff it.

wait, so whos making this? surely all or most of the black isle crew (which is also the name of my new 80s hip hop label) have moved on to obsidian or other studios.

@VoDrackus said:

Seems odd that after a couple of weeks of Chris Avellone talking about making a spiritual successor to Planescape that Interplay comes along and talks about resurrecting Black Isle.

Kinda feels like they are saying to Chris to piss off, that they will handle a new Planescape and man hopefully use 3.5 and the Planescape rules.

No disrepect to Chris, Loved Alpha Protocol, but I'm not feeling his ideas for a successor to Planescape.

It's not the rules that made Torment the game it was. The game was basically a dumbed down Baldur's Gate 1 before "dumbing down" was even a thing.

It wasn't even the multiverse... though it was singularly unique, I shall admit.

It was the FEEL. And I wouldn't trust anybody with it except Obsidian.

What the fuck are they ressurecting?

Almost all Black Isle people have long since moved on, a lot of them are now Obsidian.

Like others have pointed out this is just a shitty marketing stunt by Interplay that hasn't done anything in a decade. Interplay is nothing but a tiny business and legal department of a few people, leeching and surviving on Bethesda deal and their past propertis. There hasn't been a dev team in years.

This isn't great news this is a laughable attemt to fool those less in the know.

/spit

I mean, I would welcome anyone attempting to make that style of RPG again but the name alone isn't worth getting terribly excited over.

Unless they're actually bringing in the former Black Isle guys for this, it means exactly diddly dick.

So it's the studio IN NAME and nothing else?

Hopefully they can hold up to the reputation that they once had.

Seems odd that after a couple of weeks of Chris Avellone talking about making a spiritual successor to Planescape that Interplay comes along and talks about resurrecting Black Isle.

Kinda feels like they are saying to Chris to piss off, that they will handle a new Planescape and man hopefully use 3.5 and the Planescape rules.

No disrepect to Chris, Loved Alpha Protocol, but I'm not feeling his ideas for a successor to Planescape.

Ahhh...we are all heroes. You, Boo and I.Hamsters and rangers everywhere! Rejoice!

@sissylion said:

Planescape Torment 2. First-person action RPG with a talking dog and an all-dubstep soundtrack.

Let me dress the dog in different, unlockable costumes and I'll buy two copies.

@Mr_Skeleton: I know, I don't know wtf people are getting excited about here. They're probably just going to ruin everything. It's not going to be what it once was.

They are not resurrecting the studio... they are resurrecting THE NAME of the studio...

If they are resurrecting this studio to bring back the types of games they used to make I am all for it. I can forgive a potential lack of quality just to play this type of game again.

Dude...

If they're focused on creating old school styled RPG's, then this is good news.. but without any of the actual talent, using the name is pretty meaningless. I'm a bit confused about who they intend to fool with this. Surely anyone who remembers this studio is savvy enough to know that this isn't actually going to involve the same people.

So weird.

Having a studio called 'Black Isle' without the talent that made the name famous is meaningless.

It's a bit like EA naming most of their owned studio's to Bioware in the hope that game fans will suddenly think every game with a Bioware name will be awesome and not the same old EA shit.

@Terramagi said:

@sissylion said:

Planescape Torment 2. First-person action RPG with a talking dog and an all-dubstep soundtrack.

"YO CUTTER, PUT THESE BERKS IN THE DEAD-BOOK."

WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB

Efff. I want this game right now.

Sure I'm a little excited, but I'll wait out until there's talk of games/people. Don't want to get my hopes up for anything just yet.

I will fully support this move only if they can promise the same level of phenomenal story telling and gameplay. I wish these older games ran on newer windows systems more easily. They are superstars of the rpg world.

@Terramagi said:

@sissylion said:

Planescape Torment 2. First-person action RPG with a talking dog and an all-dubstep soundtrack.

"YO CUTTER, PUT THESE BERKS IN THE DEAD-BOOK."

WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB

Am I wrong for wanting this?

It's just a cash grab to bring back interest to Interplay even though the talent of the original Black Isle has long been gone for awhile.

This isn't really much different than when Atari "came back" is it? Someone who owned a brand name merely pasted it on something.

If they don't have the majority of the original people, chances are we'll be many throws away from the iconic days of Black Isle.