A Eulogy for Black Isle's Tragic End

If there's a cautionary tale of late, the kind of story parents tell their children so they won't grow up to be game designers, it's the saga of Black Isle Studios. With no shortage of blame to be turned on Interplay's legendary mismanagement, the lamentations of BIS have been lavishly wept across the gaming spectrum and mostly deserved. But, and please forgive me for suggesting the blasphemous, it seems a bit naive to assume this end was either sudden or even avoidable. Black Isle may have been scraping along for the past year or two, but it was no healthier than Atari during its dark Jaguar days, and barely a shadow of its once dominant self.

The series of casualties on PC gaming's once elite developers is a disturbing enough trend on its own. Many would put Black Isle's tombstone on the hallowed ground next to the likes of Looking Glass Studios, but perhaps some of our nostalgia for past successes has clouded the unavoidable issue that Black Isle Studios has been sorely lacking a solid critical or commercial hit of late. Which leads me to a statement that some might find a little shocking and others openly offensive, that being: I'm relieved that Fallout 3 isn't going to be finished?

This is not at all to say that I take pleasure or satisfaction in the jobs and livelihoods lost. Nor, that I wouldn't have wanted to see another Black Isle game, particularly one in the tradition of their best. And, I've no doubt that a great many talented people were pouring themselves into Fallout 3 with a fiery passion that I couldn't summon with incantations and a bulk supply of Viagra. But, even in the best of circumstances, without the benefit of former Fallout designers Feargus Urquhart or Tim Cain, both now departed from BIS, I'd be skeptical about the results, and these were far from the best of circumstances. Black Isle has been a sinking ship for months, if not years, certainly suffering from Urquhart's departure in early 2003, but possibly never recovering from events as far back as November 2001 when the company found itself partnered with BioWare to develop the next big CRPG.

Black Isle Studios certainly laid their own foundation of success with the Fallout franchise, but it was their association with BioWare that briefly put them in the highest echelon of production studios. Their mutual resurrection of the virtually dead CRPG genre with the sudden and surprising success of Baldur's Gate vaulted both companies to the forefront of PC gaming. Following with sequels, expansions, and Black Isle's own success with Icewind Dale, the closely tied companies looked to continue their shared success in the release of Neverwinter Nights.

If one can point a finger at the defining moment when the foundation of Black Isle Studios first cracked beyond repair, it was probably November 29, 2001 when BioWare severed their associations with Interplay. On the heels of one lawsuit accusing Interplay of sublicensing distribution of their games without approval, and another, teamed with Decent developer Parallax, of failing to pay royalties, BioWare was forced to take dramatic measures. Understandably dissatisfied and furstrated with the hapless publisher, BioWare ended its contract with Interplay. On their way out, BioWare took the Neverwinter franchise and, as would later become apparent, the rights to publish Dungeons and Dragons brand games with them.

Time has proved the departure a good move for BioWare, as time has proved many Interplay evacuations a smart decision. Despite some troubling delays, Neverwinter Nights went on to win numerous awards and sell millions of copies worldwide. Followed by the equally successful Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, BioWare has more than maintained its dominant position in the industry. Able to separate itself from Interplay, BioWare did what Black Isle could not. It managed its own destiny.

Black Isle Studios, however, found itself floundering in the deep waters suddenly adrift and directionless, its blockbuster project lost. The company quickly became a PC development house locked onto an increasingly console minded and financially unsteady publisher. It was not the first sign that the company had lived most of its life on the thin ice, it wouldn't be the last, but it may have been the most significant.

It's noteworthy that the story of Black Isle Studios is primarily told through the context of the resources that were taken away from it. The fall of Black Isle is a product of the constant forces that pulled talent, franchises, and creativity away from the company, a trend in which the loss of Neverwinter Nights is only one example. Let's speak of Troika games for a moment, an unassuming development house that has quietly released two outstanding role playing games. Arcanum, its first release, was a quirky tale of the conflict between magic and technology. Set upon a world in the throes of an industrial revolution, it blended a familiar reality with fantasy elements. It was a deep and involving game met with critical success. Temple of Elemental Evil is not quite so easy to praise, though I think it ultimately deserves a good heaping of it. A buggy game, but one that satisfies the D&D itch through a classic module.

A quick look through Troika's team reveals that many of its employees come from BIS and/or the team behind Fallout and Fallout 2. Founded by Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason Anderson, Troika is the result of the first mass exodus from Black Isle Studios following the success of Fallout 1. The second exodus came early last year when Feargus Urquhart left with 17 Black Isle employees to found Obsidian Entertainment.

Black Isle is left as a development and production house married to an unsteady publisher ever flirting with bankruptcy, staffed with the remnants of Tim Cain's and, more notably, Feargus Urquhart's evacuation, beginning work on a sequel to arguably two of the best role-playing games ever produced. To complicate matters, one certainly must question how much enthusiasm publisher Interplay shared in Black Isle's pet project. With its focus squarely turned to action console titles, Interplay was more interested in doing with the Fallout franchise as they had done with Baldur's Gate in Dark Alliance. With the announcement of Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, a game to be developed in-house at Interplay without Black Isle, it was clear which direction the money was flowing, as it was also clear that support for the primarily PC developer was tragically waning. Things would only get worse for BIS and Fallout 3 with 2003's slow burn.

The year started poorly enough with Urquhart's departure, but following a dispute with Wizards of the Coast over the Dungeons and Dragons license, BIS suddenly stopped production on its next Forgotten Realms game codenamed Jefferson. The demise of Jefferson - rumored to be Baldur's Gate 3, though that rumor remains officially denied leaves the impression that Black Isle was hemorrhaging money, employees, and now projects. Jefferson became the third member in an inauspicious triumvirate of canned games for Black Isle. Sharing a place with Stonekeep 2 and TORN, Jefferson was just another casualty for a development house that's never truly been on steady ground.

Black Isle ended the summer with one remaining chance for redemption. Lionheart, developled by Reflexive Entertainment and produced by Black Isle Studios needed to be a saving grace that would invest Black Isle with both cash and a new credibility. It was, instead, met with sharp criticism and a disappointing customer response. Not quite Fallout, and not quite Diablo, Lionheart appealed to neither crowd with its often frustrating gameplay and confusing pace. Black Isle found itself hit at the most inopportune moment with a flop.

A further nail in the coffin came in November 2003 when Fallout 3 lead designer J. E. Sawyer suddenly followed in the footsteps of former Black Isle lead designers, resigning only a half day after publicly extolling the virtues of Fallout 3. Hinting at frustration and resentment, though never publicly focusing that sentiment, Sawyer's exit would be the last significant public humiliation before Interplay finally shut the doors on Black Isle. It was a heartbreaking end to a once proud developer, but anyone who was paying attention couldn't have been surprised when the day finally came. Even Urquhart has been quoted as saying he had assumed, after leaving, that Black Isle's closure was imminent.

So, looking at this sordid tale, what does it mean for me to say I'm relieved that Fallout 3 wasn't finished? It doesn't mean at all that I'm glad people lost their jobs, or lost the opportunity to follow their creative passions. On the contrary, the real tragedy of Black Isle's end is the effect it has on the employees who have invested their time, creativity, and work into the project. The entertainment of gamers, manifest in the loss of Fallout 3, is pretty insignificant when compared to the trials of Black Isle's unfortunate workers. And, I'm certainly not absolving Interplay for their gross mismanagement, which, let's be honest, is what got, and more importantly kept, Black Isle in constant dire straits.

I am saying, however, that a great many forces were aligned against the well supported development of a great title leaving only a slim chance that Fallout 3 could have lived up to expectations. Fallout 3 was certainly being developed with its lineage as a template – perhaps one reason that action-focused Interplay lost interest - but clearly not with the talent that had originally made the former games great. Without Cain or Urquhart, and to a lesser degree Sawyer, it would be hard to produce a Fallout 3 that mirrored the creative success of its predecessors. Backed by an apparently unscrupulous publisher increasingly interested in action console titles, one imagines that had the company survived, Black Isle would undoubtedly have struggled to maintain financial support from an already cash strapped Interplay. And, though it is part speculation, and part guilt-by-association, it must be noted that the quality and originality of Black Isle games has been on an exponential decrease of late culminating in the disappointing unmet potential of Lionheart. The reasons must be left to conjecture, but something has been driving the names and talent away from Black Isle for years now, and I question how an adequate Fallout 3 could be produced in that kind of environment.

What I am ultimately saying is that I can all too easily imagine a scenario where Fallout 3 would mark a dismal and disappointing postscript to a classic series. I'm saying that the desperate push of a tattered team might very well not have been enough to overcome the turmoil of Black Isle's troubles and Interplay's obvious disinterest even if it had kept its doors open. What it all comes down to is this: Fallout 3, if it is to be produced, deserves the full attention of a confident developer with a cohesive team and the well funded backing of a supportive publisher. As it stood when the axe finally fell, Black Isle Studios had none of those things.

I didn't just want to play Fallout 3. I wanted to play a great game that followed in the traditions of the previous two Fallouts. I don't know that Black Isle was capable of producing that.

- Sean Sands

Comments

I would still much rather see the developers try and fail rather than become victims of casual corporate indifference. At least a failed Fallout 3 would provide lessons for future developers to try and create better games. As it stands, it is a lesson not to try to create good games at all.

Whose to say that with the economic failing of Interplay they they don't sell the right to Fallout 3 back to them as a company with a differant name. Or even see them get picked up by Bioware. They are always looking to build up their company. Which, in my opinion, would be a tremendous boost to an already awesome company.

I didn't just want to play Fallout 3. I wanted to play a great game that followed in the traditions of the previous two Fallouts. I don't know that Black Isle was capable of producing that.

Now of course we'll never know if that would have been the case or not. It's heart breaking to be sure but I agree, we're better off with no sequel than a (let's admit it) poor cash grab of an RPG. With any luck someone will score that license and do right by it.

Great article!

That would be one of the happier outcomes, I think. Gamespot hypothesized a similar situation in one interview with Feargus, and he was very frank in saying that Interplay needs money; if a company comes along and offers cash for the use of the Fallout franchise then they're likely to take it. Unfortunately, it also means Interplay isn't likely to be picky with the Fallout name. So, for every good situation where a BioWare comes along - though I doubt seriously they would invest themselves in a business deal with Interplay - there are equal number of nightmare scenarios where less quality organizations get their hands on the opportunity. It would be nice, and I think a bit more likely, if a Troika or Obsidian decided to go for the opportunity to make Fallout 3. That would be my preference.

I guess it's a testament to the accuracy of your assertion that I ended up agreeing with you before I was done reading. There's a really good chance it could've been a letdown.

Hopefully the guys who used to work at Black Isle can now find a job somewhere else and start to work on games again without having to battle Interplay's inept management for the privilege. It still sucks to see them go, however maybe in the end its for the best. It really depends on whether or not somebody can put these guys back to work, hopefully someone out there has the brains to do exactly that.

I don't agree with you. You make the assumption that one man makes the difference in a development team, that one man is the key to success or failure in the development of a computer game. I cannot count the number of interviews with developers where developers like Warren Spector or Feargus Urquhart have repeatedly stated that it is the team as a whole that makes the game, not one man.

Even if your assumption was true, I wouldn't want Tim Cain handling the development of Fallout 3. I'm not sure where you got your information but both Arcanum and ToEE met with average reviews and poor sales. I personally have never been able to finish either game due to how heavily flawed and poorly executed they are.

Additionally, you seem to have no respect or confidence in the competency of the remaining developers at Black Isle. The idea that only Cain or Urquhart could bring a success out of BIS is insulting to those that continued to work there.

Finally, I wanted to make it clear that contrary to what you state in your editorial the Black Isle community loved Black Isle despite it's association with Bioware not because of it. If Bioware ever makes a Planescape: Torment or a Fallout I may reevaluate that statement but until then Bioware remains one of the most overrated developers out there.

Additionally, you seem to have no respect or confidence in the competency of the remaining developers at Black Isle.

I would've had a lot more confidence in the Fallout 3 team had they been backed by a publisher interested in supporting them. It's not just an issue of not having Cain or Urquhart, though that certainly plays a role. It is an issue of not having resources or support coupled with the loss of major names. One man can make a difference in a time of company crisis, and at the end Black Isle had no one to champion their cause in the media or in the board room.

That said, your criticism is a fair rebuttal.

ScottishMartialArts wrote:

...

Hey ScottishMartialArts, we need your help on something real quick. It seems you don't have a user in the forums even though you have a username on the front page, can you tell me when you signed up and how you did it? I'm having a hard time figuring out how it happened I'd appreciate any help you've got

Hmmm, I clicked on his name on this post and I got a page could not be displayed IE error. Then I went through the memberlist in the forums and sorted them by joined date and descending order and he was the most recent member to join (join date: 1/19/04). Now when I click on his name I get the profile like I should, strange.

ScottishMartialArts Profile

Hey, my sig is messed up now

You make a compelling argument Elysium, but I would still be willing to play a half-decent Fallout RPG.. it'd probably be better than most RPGs out there!

Sawyer had finished his portion of the work before he left so a lot of his ideas have been put into the project. According to the ex-BIS folks, the engine was 90% complete and maps were 50% done.

I think the outcome would've been pretty decent.

You're right that Ineptplay could probably still manage to sabotage a sure thing.

It is a shame that so many pubishers control so much of the creative ability of brilliant development houses. I know it's the way buisness is but wouldn't the gaming world be something if every developer could be given the freedom that companies like Blizzard and Bioware (although they had to fight to not get screwed) get.

Alien

Aliens

Alien 3

-Rollgunner

Tobyus wrote:

Hmmm, I clicked on his name on this post and I got a page could not be displayed IE error. Then I went through the memberlist in the forums and sorted them by joined date and descending order and he was the most recent member to join (join date: 1/19/04). Now when I click on his name I get the profile like I should, strange.

ScottishMartialArts Profile

Hey, my sig is messed up now :lol:

We got it figured out. Basically when you create a user it creates a front page user. Then when you go to the forums page it reads your front name info and creates a forum user. He just hadn't been to the forums yet.

Hmm, I didn't know the color tag wasn't supported by the pn_bbcode module. Whoops

ScottishMartialArts wrote:

. . . developers like Warren Spector or Feargus Urquhart have repeatedly stated that it is the team as a whole that makes the game, not one man.

Additionally, you seem to have no respect or confidence in the competency of the remaining developers at Black Isle. The idea that only Cain or Urquhart could bring a success out of BIS is insulting to those that continued to work there.

While you make some good points, I have to disagree with some things here. Creating a good game requires more than just good artists, programmers, and developers, it requires good direction and leadership. I recently left a small game development company that had some excellent artists, but poor leadership. The talent to create great games was there, but without a leader willing to step up and follow a "vision" for a game, and organize everyone's efforts to meet this vision, they'll never amount to much.

The people who left BIS were the ones who provided the "vision" and direction for Fallout and Fallout 2. Not having those people there any more meant Fallout 3, no matter how much we might wish it, could never have the same feel as Fallout and Fallout 2. That doesn't mean Fallout 3 would have been bad--it may have been excellent, we'll never know, but it does mean the game would almost certainly feel like a spiritual successor, and not an actual sequel. For instance, the rumors I've heard pointed to Fallout 3 using the same real-time engine as Lionheart. Considering how clunky and dull the gameplay was in Lionheart this would have been a Bad Thing (TM). One can hope they would have decided not to do that, but then Interplay would probably have stepped in and said "No, it must be real-time. Nobody likes turn-based."

Ok, enough rambling. The points:

1. Leadership is important to the development of a game, and the people BIS lost were the original leaders behind the development of Fallout.

2. Interplay sucks and Fallout 3 was probably doomed from the start.

I agree with you on this one, Elysium. As much as I'd like to see another great Fallout game, there was little chance of anything good coming out of such an obviously dysfunctional environment. Something was obviously very wrong at BIS, and it was just time to give the dead horse its final kick.

Pyroman[FO] wrote:

Hmm, I didn't know the color tag wasn't supported by the pn_bbcode module. Whoops :)

[size=24][color=red]IT DOES NOW![/color][/size]

I would rather see them finish the game... what ever is outcome; at least we know that the game was a success or fail. Right now we just speculating on ideas weather if it would have been any good. Besides, if people like Feargus would be still in the BIS team that would only raise a small percentage of guarantees that it would deliver a good game... or sales. I mean look at Fallout Tactics... Feargus was in the development of that game, however sales were very poor and the game went from $50 to $20 in like 3 month. However was the game bad, I would say NO! I'm for one who loved it, replayed it so many time with different settings that I think I can play it blind folded, and it been on my hard drive sense day 1 when it was released! ...yeah I was one of those who pay $50, and could not wait 2 weeks for it to be $39.99 and the more or less down to $10!

Arh... I wish that some body would just show something of the project, like screens or a movie.

Nei, I played Fallout Tactics too. I thought it was a decent game and really should have sold better than it did. I've played it most of the way through a couple of times, but get bogged down near the end because some of those maps are HUGE!

All things considered it was a solid spinoff, it just didn't grab the target audience. It also didn't have much of the off-beat sense of humor that made Fallout such a hit.

The "C= Amiga Syndrome" too much of the same thing.. one Baldaurs Gate clone after another.

[size=24][color=blue]This is the best VERBOSITY you have written, Elysium.[/color][/size]

Paladin wrote:
ScottishMartialArts wrote:

. . . developers like Warren Spector or Feargus Urquhart have repeatedly stated that it is the team as a whole that makes the game, not one man.

Additionally, you seem to have no respect or confidence in the competency of the remaining developers at Black Isle. The idea that only Cain or Urquhart could bring a success out of BIS is insulting to those that continued to work there.

While you make some good points, I have to disagree with some things here. Creating a good game requires more than just good artists, programmers, and developers, it requires good direction and leadership. I recently left a small game development company that had some excellent artists, but poor leadership. The talent to create great games was there, but without a leader willing to step up and follow a "vision" for a game, and organize everyone's efforts to meet this vision, they'll never amount to much.

The people who left BIS were the ones who provided the "vision" and direction for Fallout and Fallout 2. Not having those people there any more meant Fallout 3, no matter how much we might wish it, could never have the same feel as Fallout and Fallout 2. That doesn't mean Fallout 3 would have been bad--it may have been excellent, we'll never know, but it does mean the game would almost certainly feel like a spiritual successor, and not an actual sequel. For instance, the rumors I've heard pointed to Fallout 3 using the same real-time engine as Lionheart. Considering how clunky and dull the gameplay was in Lionheart this would have been a Bad Thing (TM). One can hope they would have decided not to do that, but then Interplay would probably have stepped in and said "No, it must be real-time. Nobody likes turn-based."

Ok, enough rambling. The points:

1. Leadership is important to the development of a game, and the people BIS lost were the original leaders behind the development of Fallout.

2. Interplay sucks and Fallout 3 was probably doomed from the start.

Fallout 3 was not going to use the same engine as Lionheart, it was going to use the engine that was developed for the cancelled ("put on hold") Jefferson project (BG3). The engine was designed from the start to be flexible and be separate from the game rules so it could support both D&D rules and SPECIAL rules. It was also designed to support both real time and turn based combat. I had high hopes for both Jefferson and Van Buren(a.k.a. Fallout 3), and they were probably the two games I've been the most excited over during the past 4 years.

-A'kin, the Friendly Fiend

ScottishMartialArts wrote:

Finally, I wanted to make it clear that contrary to what you state in your editorial the Black Isle community loved Black Isle despite it's association with Bioware not because of it. If Bioware ever makes a Planescape: Torment or a Fallout I may reevaluate that statement but until then Bioware remains one of the most overrated developers out there.

When I first played and came to love the Baldur's Gate and other Infinity Engine games, I hated seeing that stupid, spinning BioWare logo. When they threw the axe that proved to be the really critical, fatal blow to Black Isle -- the sublease lawsuit -- I could feel myself shaking inside with anger and frustration... How could they? To annihilate the alliance that was responsible for -the- best RPGs to come to the PC? To utterly obliterate the promise that Neverwinter Nights held? Was this the act of a legitimately outraged business partner?

As much respect as I retain for BioWare at this point, having assessed as best I could their responsibility for the quality of BGI and II and found it to be monumental... the answer is No. The names that come to mind, frankly, are Cain and Abel. Had BioWare resisted jumping into bed with Lucas (who has been riding the fence between the dark and light sides of the force for some time now) and nurtured BIS, the titles to follow might have been grand indeed. NeverWinter (the version we hoped for, that -didn't- suck) alone would have been worth the risk taken by continuing to associate with the sickness that is Interplay.

That being said, perhaps it was not all for the worst. At this point, perhaps we have to forgive BioWare its sins and hope that they'll wake up and remember that they used to make games that were epic and inspiring even at Level 1. Unfortunately, they may be making too much money now to care about making good games anymore.

Hello i`m Briosafreak, one of the people thst for months covered the Fallout3 saga to the No Mutants Allowed site ( http://www.nma-fallout.com ) , and released the only pics of a techdemo of the game that are still available.

First let me agree with the assessement made that Interplay had drained resources and focus from BIS , leading to their demise, since it`s now proved that Interplay needed BIS to remain a player in the gaming business. Without BIS and the pc games it could have made, their situation is more or less this now
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/vie...
I would also agree that the departure of talent was a heavy blow to BIS, although the Bioware split doesn`t seem all that important in the way i see the events now, if BIS could have released BG3: The Black Hound and Fallout3: a post apocaliptic role-playing game with their Jefferson engine the relevance of Bio to BIS wouldn`t be in discussion by now. But it`s an interesting thing to discuss how Interplay allowed for so long games to go overbudget and and behind schedule just to sell the rights for them before they were released...

Well all in all the idea that Fallout3 didn`t have a chance of beeing something good because of the constraints placed by Interplay and the dev exodus is very popular inside the fallout community and the RPG fans in general, and you do raise some good arguments to back that up. Still...

.. the team had many veterans from the previous Fallout games, like French or Deily, and great number of fans of the series. It had succeeded in getting the level of detail that is tipical of 2d games into a 3d world, product of many programers and artists that had started working for BIS in the post Bioware engine times that earlier did not fully suceeded in TORN, but were ready this time; the story was basically Chris Avellone story with litlle changes, Chris was Lead designer in Planescape and had made New Reno for Fallout2, and had worked on early production stuff for FO3 for three years before joining Obsidian; Sawyer streamlined the features in the game, making sure deadlines would be met, but when he left his work was almost 100% done; and more importantly i know the story, know the areas, the NPCs and the twists, the number of diferent characters that could be made, the traditional non-linearity, and the care in not doing too much like the fans wanted, wich went a bit sour in Fallout2, and not departing from the basic premisses the fans were expecting, wich was the only way to go on my view.

So yes, the game was dead since the start, with all the circunstances around it, but still if it had been released, by some miracle, it could have surprised gamers. I had and have a good feeling about it, giving all the info i got. So we`ll never know how things would turn in the end, and that`s a shame, maybe if Interplay releases the license to better hands something from that game emerges, one can only hope.

Thanks for your time, keep up the good work