I read earlier today that Interplay has decided to shut down Black Isle Studios.

In case you don’t know who Black Isle are, they develop(ed) PC (and console) games are are responsible for such hits as Icewind Dale, the Baldur’s Gate series and (most importantly, to me) the Fallout series.

The initial announcement seems to have been made on the Interplay Forums and does not seem to have been a surprise to the development studio. It would also seem that Interplay has decided to move away from PC game development (though they will still release some PC games) and more into console development.

Interplay are a well-known and respected publisher in the PC gaming industry and many long-time PC gamers can fondly remember one or more of their games (a list of which, can be found here — I’m sure you can find one or two which spark a happy memory).

Personally, the Fallout series has been my favourite (BIS were developing Fallout 3 at the time of the announcement), with Planescape: Torment probably being the next in line. Their other games I could take or leave but a lot of people did enjoy them.

This is really disappointing news for me, as Fallout 3 was one of my most anticipated future games. That and the remake of Pirates!.

Oh, and hi to what appears to be my one reader.

Note: I just read that Vivendi Universal Games has just laid off 70 employees today. Looks like 2003 is the year of game-company layoffs/closures.

Sad news.