It seems like Black Isle, the game studio behind RPG classics like Fallout and Planescape: Torment, is making some sort of comeback.
An official website for the new Black Isle popped up today, as did Facebook and Twitter pages (as spotted by the folks on NeoGAF). The website appears to have been registered by Interplay, the company that owned Black Isle back in the late 90s—and shut it down in 2003.
The elephant in the room here is that as far as we know, all of the people who used to work at Black Isle—talented video game designers like Feargus Urquhart and Chris Avellone—are now elsewhere. Some are at Obsidian, the company behind games like Fallout: New Vegas and Knights of the Old Republic II, while others are at inXile, the studio currently working on crowdfunded RPG Wasteland 2.
Interplay also recently lost all rights to develop a Fallout MMORPG.
So what would a new Black Isle look like? What would they work on? A banner on the new website reads: "Our goal has always been to make the world's best RPGs. Black Isle Studios is back." But can they really be "back" with none of the talent that made those RPGs great? Have they brought back some of that talent?
I've reached out to the e-mail address listed on the new Black Isle website for comment. Will update should I hear anything.
Update: Avellone says he isn't involved: