Black Isle Studios dissolved

Probably the worst piece of gaming news I've read in a while is that Black Isle Studios was shut down by Interplay. The word came through the official Interplay messageboards by way of Damien Foletto, one of the developers on the BIS team.

Sure I went out of my way to slag Lionheart, but that was by far the low point of Black Isle's almost flawless track record. For a group of developers to have supplied the CRPG world with titles like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Fallout with equally successful sequels, single handedly change our expecations for what a single-player CRPG should be with Planescape: Torment and then be cast aside because its parent company wants to focus on consoles is deplorable at best. So instead of seeing the Fallout 3 project to completion, Interplay has decided to dedicate their developers to pumping out titles like Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II. Both of which franchises, I would like to emphasize, started out on the PC. I wish the former Black Isle Studios team the best of luck.

Add this studio to the obituary of those that helped revolutionize the game development industry. Another personal favorite, Warren Spector's Looking Glass, closed its doors in May of 2000.

at the top of the stairs, you shove