Creator / Black Isle Studios

aka: Black Isle

Black Isle Studios was formed as a division of Interplay Entertainment in 1996 during the development of the original Fallout. At its conception, the studio was comprised of many of the people behind Fallout with a goal of developing a worthy sequel to it, and from there on, even more successful RPGs. During the development of Fallout 2, however, several developers unhappy with the new organization left to form Troika Games.

The original incarnation of the studio was closed by Interplay in 2003, amidst massive financial problems. Most of its members almost immediately reformed themselves as Obsidian Entertainment.

To work on a new RPG project, Interplay restarted Black Isle Studios. Taking in a project previously worked on by Masthead Studios, Black Isle Studios began work on Project V13; something of a lawyer-friendly version of the cancelled Fallout Online. To fund the game, Black Isle launched the Black Isle Mayan Apocalypse Replacement Program. The campaign was negatively received, due to a lack of rewards beyond access to a proposed forum and the end product being a prototype. All references to Project V13 have later been removed without any comment or refund, and nothing else has been heard from it again. In 2016, Interplay sold off all of its video game intellectual properties, putting an end to the revived Black Isle.

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Games developed by Black Isle Studios:

• Fallout 2 (1998)
• Planescape: Torment (1999)
• Icewind Dale (2000)

• Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter (2001)
• Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter - Trials of the Luremaster (2001)

• Icewind Dale II (2002)
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (2004)

• Fallout: Van Buren (canceled)

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Games published by Black Isle Studios:

• Baldur's Gate (1998)

• Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999)

• Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000)
  • Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (2001)

• Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (2003)

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• What Could Have Been: The studio was working on various projects that were cancelled.
  • Stonekeep 2: Godmaker.
  • Torn was a cancelled PC RPG running on the Lithtech engine, using the SPECIAL system from Fallout.
  • Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance III was in development around 2004.
  • Fallout 3, known as Fallout: Van Buren.
  • Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound.