When a person enjoys a particular hobby for long enough, they see certain companies, franchises, brands, and trends rise and fall. In gaming, there are a lot of excellent digital experiences that simply have not been recreated in the modern era of reruns and re-imaginings.
Some of this is due to changing trends in gaming itself, and some of this is due to a number of those old companies and teams that made those great experiences simply no longer existing. Black Isle Studios was one such company.
Pedigree
Black Isle crafted several of the gaming world’s most enduring franchises, including both Icewind Dale and Fallout, neither of which has been recreated in the modern era of gaming. Icewind Dale is from a genre that no longer truly exists in the current digital marketplace, and while Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas were both excellent games they were by necessity of interface extremely different experiences from their source material.
The studio fell was closed down when Interplay had financial difficulties back in 2003, with all the staff being laid off and with its current projects being cancelled. It was a dark day for gamers.
Hopes
Now Interplay has a stable of developers who are looking to bring Black Isle Studios back. They’ve announced the desire and are asking for donations from fans to fund the rebuilding of the studio.
They’ve released a video with a quirky End-Of-The-World theme begging fans of the old studio to donate what they can to allow them to relaunch the studio, talking about creating new games in similar to the classic titles that Black Isle became known for.
Examples
The developers discuss “Project V13“, the first game they have plans for if they receive enough funding to be reborn. The game does not sound like a remake of Fallout, though it clearly has some similar themes and they make it equally clear that they intend to craft a similar experience.
This could be a great opportunity to bring back some of the gaming magic that hooked people way back before cell phones had stores in them, or it could be an opportunity to watch a group of Interplay devs fail trying. Either way, if you’d like to see Black Isle Studios return, go tell Interplay so and vote with your dollar if you can.
Please note, this is not a kickstarter. They are not asking for pledges of donations, they are asking for actual money, so take care before throwing what you think is potential cash at what might not work.
