9 Amazing Video Game Developers Killed Off By Their Publishers

6. Black Isle Studios

Dead Space 3
Black Isle Studios

Founded: 1996

Defunct: 2003

What happened: The lingering fear of any publisher-owned studio is what happens if their parent company goes under.

Black Isle Studios, which we have to thank for the phenomenal Fallout and Baldur's Gate series', had those fears become reality at the conclusion of 2003, just in time for Christmas. Lovely.

After several years of increasing financial difficulties, Black Isles' owner, Interplay Entertainment, found itself with little choice but to cancel a slew of the former's planned projects, but even that wasn't enough to make ends meet. Scrutinizing its balance sheet one final time, Interplay opted to lay off the entirety of Black Isles' staff, in turn killing off the original Fallout 3 (Van Buren).

A terrible crime of wasted potential? Absolutely, but the talent did survive. Obsidian Entertainment rose from the ashes of Black Isle and continues to thrive under the banner of Bethesda.

Consider Fallout: New Vegas to be the closest you'll ever get to the original Van Buren.

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Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.