Created in 1996 by
Feargus Urquhart, the studio was named Black Isle after Urquhart's homeland. The studio, although credited for the creation of
Fallout was, in fact, not responsible for the game. Rather a key portion of the original studio came from the team that made
Fallout. When developing
Fallout 2, several employees left Interplay to form
Troika Games after they "were unable to come to an agreement with Interplay as to how [their] next team should be structured." The remaining team would go on to release such critically acclaimed games as
Planescape: Torment, and
Icewind Dale. The studio also released critically acclaimed ''
Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn'' developed by
BioWare. In the years leading to the closure of Black Isle, Interplay's financial difficulties would worsen, leading to the cancellation of anticipated games such as ''
Black Isle's Torn and Stonekeep 2: Godmaker, releasing only Icewind Dale II, publishing Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader and developing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II. On December 8, 2003, in the midst of serious financial difficulties, Interplay laid off the entire Black Isle Studios staff, which also resulted in the cancellation of Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance III and the original Fallout 3''. The campaign did not raise sufficient funds to develop a playable prototype, and communications from Interplay and Black Isle about the project had ceased completely by early 2014. ==Games==