DaveW
04-21-2009, 09:46 PM
This has to be the most profound piece of news I've heard in a number of years.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58229
For those not in the know, Black Isle/Fallout 3 is the world's most prime example of 'screwed by the publisher'. Let me tell you a little story of an event I like to call 'The Black Isle Massacre'.
Interplay execs weren't happy with their profit margins, being in the negative as they were; they needed money fast. Black Isle, the makers of true classics like Fallout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_(video_game)), Baldur's Gate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur_Gate), and Planescape: Torment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape_Torment), were working on Fallout 3 at the time. I believe that Feargus Urquhart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feargus_Urquhart) had said "Fallout 3 was about 80% finished". I could be very wrong, as he had left Interplay/Black Isle at this point. Regardless, just to get a measure of how big these players are, he comes up at number 1 simply by typing 'Feargus' into google (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Feargus&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a). Fallout 3 was close to completion, as a leaked Technical Demo (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Van_Buren_tech_demo) revealed.
Interplay closed Black Isle (http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/fallout3/news_6085243.html), sacked everyone who worked there, and started selling the Intellectual Properties off to the highest bidder. A group of Ex-Employees ended up making a bid for it, but Interplay refused to sell the licence to them. Eventually, it ended up with Bethesda, as you're all aware.
The interplay employees scattered; some had predicted the coming storm, and left to form Troika games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika_Games), which made critically acclaimed but hugely buggy games; Arcanum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcanum:_Of_Steamworks_and_Magick_Obscura)and Vampires: The Masquerade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade_-_Bloodlines).
Feargus himself ended up the CEO of Obsidian, along with most of the remaining staff of Black Isle. They also had a habit of making buggy but critically acclaimed games, such as Nights of the Old Republic 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic_II:_The_Sit h_Lords) and Neverwinter Nights 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_2).
From my point of view, Bethesda just took Fallout home. This moment is more emotional for me personally than when Elrond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elrond)delivered Anduril, reforged from Narsil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narsil), to Aragorn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aragorn).
This is big. This is good. This is beautiful. Thoughts?
-Dave
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58229
For those not in the know, Black Isle/Fallout 3 is the world's most prime example of 'screwed by the publisher'. Let me tell you a little story of an event I like to call 'The Black Isle Massacre'.
Interplay execs weren't happy with their profit margins, being in the negative as they were; they needed money fast. Black Isle, the makers of true classics like Fallout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_(video_game)), Baldur's Gate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur_Gate), and Planescape: Torment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape_Torment), were working on Fallout 3 at the time. I believe that Feargus Urquhart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feargus_Urquhart) had said "Fallout 3 was about 80% finished". I could be very wrong, as he had left Interplay/Black Isle at this point. Regardless, just to get a measure of how big these players are, he comes up at number 1 simply by typing 'Feargus' into google (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Feargus&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a). Fallout 3 was close to completion, as a leaked Technical Demo (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Van_Buren_tech_demo) revealed.
Interplay closed Black Isle (http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/fallout3/news_6085243.html), sacked everyone who worked there, and started selling the Intellectual Properties off to the highest bidder. A group of Ex-Employees ended up making a bid for it, but Interplay refused to sell the licence to them. Eventually, it ended up with Bethesda, as you're all aware.
The interplay employees scattered; some had predicted the coming storm, and left to form Troika games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika_Games), which made critically acclaimed but hugely buggy games; Arcanum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcanum:_Of_Steamworks_and_Magick_Obscura)and Vampires: The Masquerade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade_-_Bloodlines).
Feargus himself ended up the CEO of Obsidian, along with most of the remaining staff of Black Isle. They also had a habit of making buggy but critically acclaimed games, such as Nights of the Old Republic 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic_II:_The_Sit h_Lords) and Neverwinter Nights 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_2).
From my point of view, Bethesda just took Fallout home. This moment is more emotional for me personally than when Elrond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elrond)delivered Anduril, reforged from Narsil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narsil), to Aragorn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aragorn).
This is big. This is good. This is beautiful. Thoughts?
-Dave