# Black Isle Studios - House: Studio - Date: 1996–2003 - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/black-isle-studios/ > Interplay's in-house RPG division, named for a Scottish peninsula, which made Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale and put its name on BioWare's Baldur's Gate games. **Why it matters:** In barely seven years Black Isle made and published the games that defined the late-1990s CRPG renaissance, and its alumni went on to found Obsidian and shape RPGs for decades. ## Quick answers **What was Black Isle Studios?** Interplay's in-house RPG division, named for a Scottish peninsula, which made Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale and put its name on BioWare's Baldur's Gate games. **When was Black Isle Studios founded?** Black Isle Studios was founded in 1996 and was based in Irvine, California; it closed in 2003. **Who founded Black Isle Studios?** Feargus Urquhart. **What is Black Isle Studios known for?** Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II. **What happened to Black Isle Studios?** Staff laid off by Interplay on December 8, 2003; key members had already founded Obsidian Entertainment. Interplay revived the name as a label in 2012. ## History Black Isle Studios was never a separate company. It was the name [Interplay Productions](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/interplay/) gave to its internal role-playing division, created in 1996 by [Feargus Urquhart](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/feargus-urquhart/), who named it after the Black Isle, a peninsula in the Scottish Highlands from which his family came. Interplay had just made *Fallout* (1997), and it wanted a home for more RPGs at a moment when the genre looked commercially spent. The division's first own release was *Fallout 2* (1998). At the same time the Black Isle logo appeared on the boxes of [BioWare](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/bioware/)'s [Baldur's Gate](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate/) (1998), which Interplay published under the Black Isle label, and on its expansions and sequel, [Baldur's Gate II](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate-ii/) (2000). BioWare's Infinity Engine also became the foundation of Black Isle's own best-known work: [Planescape: Torment](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/planescape-torment/) (1999), [Icewind Dale](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/icewind-dale/) (2000) and *Icewind Dale II* (2002). The label also published *Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader* (2003), developed by Reflexive Entertainment. Black Isle's rise coincided with Interplay's fall. Under the control of Titus Interactive, the parent company lurched from crisis to crisis, and its RPG plans were cut back. Urquhart and several senior colleagues left in 2003 and founded [Obsidian Entertainment](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/obsidian-entertainment/) that June. On December 8, 2003, Interplay laid off the whole Black Isle staff. Two ambitious projects died with them: *Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound*, and "Van Buren," Black Isle's version of *Fallout 3*. ## Notable work *Planescape: Torment* is Black Isle's monument. Built on the [Planescape](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/planescape/) setting that [TSR](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/tsr/) had launched for [AD&D 2nd Edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-2nd-edition/), and written under lead designer [Chris Avellone](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/chris-avellone/), it cast the player as the Nameless One, an immortal who wakes on a mortuary slab in the city of Sigil having forgotten his many lives. It turned the [CRPG](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/computer-rpg/) toward conversation and philosophy: many fights can be avoided, and the game's central question is "What can change the nature of a man?" By most accounts its sales were modest, but its reputation has only grown. *Icewind Dale* went the other way: a combat-heavy expedition into the frozen north of the [Forgotten Realms](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/forgotten-realms/), set in the region made famous by [R. A. Salvatore](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/r-a-salvatore/)'s [The Icewind Dale Trilogy](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-icewind-dale-trilogy/), with a [The party](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/party/) of six created by the player and fights built for [Real-time with pause](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/real-time-with-pause/) tactics. [Josh Sawyer](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/josh-sawyer/) led the design of *Icewind Dale II*, which adopted the new [3rd Edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-3rd-edition/) rules. ## Legacy Black Isle stands for the late-1990s idea that a computer RPG could be as rich in writing and choice as the best tabletop campaigns. Its people carried that idea forward: Obsidian made *Neverwinter Nights 2*, *Fallout: New Vegas* and [Pillars of Eternity](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pillars-of-eternity/), a direct homage to the Infinity Engine games, while Avellone, Sawyer and others shaped RPGs across the industry. The Infinity Engine titles were remastered by Beamdog in the 2010s, and the spirit of Baldur's Gate and Torment runs straight to [Larian](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/larian-studios/)'s [Baldur's Gate 3](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate-3/). The name itself survived as an Interplay label. In August 2012 Interplay revived Black Isle with two original team members to crowdfund Project V13, a post-apocalyptic game that faded by 2014, and in May 2021 the label re-released *Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance* for modern platforms. ## Facts - Feargus Urquhart created the division in 1996 and named it after the Black Isle in Scotland, his family's ancestral country. - Black Isle developed Fallout 2 (1998), Planescape: Torment (1999), Icewind Dale (2000) and Icewind Dale II (2002). - BioWare's Baldur's Gate games were published under the Black Isle label. - Two sequels died with the studio in 2003: Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound and Van Buren, Black Isle's Fallout 3. - Interplay laid off the entire Black Isle staff on December 8, 2003. - Interplay revived the Black Isle name in August 2012 to crowdfund Project V13; it re-released Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance under the label in May 2021. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Isle_Studios) - [Black Isle Studios (official site)](https://www.blackisle.com/) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.