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Interplay

Fallout creators

Founded January 1, 1983

4 games in database

Notable Games

FalloutFallout 2Baldur's GatePlanescape: TormentIcewind DaleThe Bard's TaleWastelandDescentEarthworm JimMDK

Company History

Interplay Entertainment Corp. was founded in 1983 in Irvine, California, by Brian Fargo. The company grew to become one of the most influential Western RPG and adventure game developers of the 1990s, creating foundational franchises and cultivating talent that continues shaping the industry today.

Interplay's early success came through partnerships with Electronic Arts for distribution and Mirrorsoft for publishing. The Bard's Tale series (1985-1988) established Interplay as a capable RPG developer. However, the company's ambitions extended beyond fantasy dungeon crawls.

Wasteland (1988), a post-apocalyptic RPG created under Brian Fargo's direction, introduced dark, morally complex themes and consequential player choices to the RPG genre. The game became a spiritual predecessor to Fallout.

In the 1990s, Interplay founded the Black Isle Studios division, which produced some of the most respected Western RPGs ever made. Baldur's Gate (1998, developed by BioWare under Black Isle publishing) revived the Dungeons & Dragons RPG genre. Planescape: Torment (1999) achieved cult classic status for its literary narrative and philosophical themes. Icewind Dale (2000) delivered dungeon-crawling focused on combat excellence.

Fallout (1997), directed by Tim Cain, transported Wasteland's spirit to a retro-futuristic post-nuclear setting. The game's dark humor, freedom of approach, and meaningful choices created an instant classic. Fallout 2 (1998) expanded every element.

Financial difficulties emerged in the 2000s. The Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games and console adaptations couldn't sustain the company. Key talent departed to form Obsidian Entertainment (2003). Interplay sold the Fallout franchise to Bethesda in 2007. The company continues existing in reduced form, occasionally licensing properties and pursuing revivals.

Behind the Scenes

Brian Fargo established a development culture valuing player agency and narrative consequence. Interplay games offered choices that mattered — not illusory options leading to identical outcomes, but genuine branching paths with distinct results.

The Wasteland and Fallout design documents articulated sophisticated approaches to non-linear gameplay. Players could complete objectives through combat, stealth, persuasion, or creative problem-solving. NPCs remembered player actions. Reputation systems tracked how factions perceived players. These weren't revolutionary individual features — their integration into cohesive experiences was the innovation.

The Black Isle Studios label concentrated narrative RPG expertise. Writers like Chris Avellone, designers like Josh Sawyer, and other talent produced games driven by words as much as combat. Planescape: Torment contained over 800,000 words of text — more than many novels — exploring themes of identity, mortality, and redemption through interactive narrative.

Interplay's business practices struggled against creative ambitions. RPGs with hundreds of thousands of words and dozens of hours of content took years to develop. Commercial performance couldn't always sustain such investments. The company repeatedly faced financial difficulties even while producing critically acclaimed work.

The talent diaspora proved as influential as Interplay's direct output. Obsidian Entertainment, founded by Black Isle veterans, continued the studio's design philosophy through Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and other titles. InXile Entertainment, founded by Brian Fargo himself, produced spiritual successors including Wasteland 2. Interplay's creative legacy thus continued through successor organizations even as the original company dwindled.