Brian Fargo
Encyclopedia
Brian Fargo is an American video game designer, developer
, producer and executive
probably best known for his company Interplay Entertainment
.
in 1983. His first games included The Bard's Tale and Wasteland. Interplay grew to over 600 employees at its zenith in the mid-1990s when it was designing and developing or producing such games as Descent
, Baldur's Gate
and Fallout. Fargo, like many other entrepreneur CEOs, had a hand in the development of most games produced by Interplay.
In 1994, Universal/MCA
bought a 45% stake in the company which later went public in 1998. In 2000, Titus Software
, a Paris-based game company, exercised a majority control of Interplay, and as a result, Fargo resigned his position with the company. Fargo started a new company, inXile Entertainment
in 2002.
and American Express
, Fargo was born in Long Beach, California
, United States
and grew up in Whittier
and Newport Beach, California
. The only child of Frank Byron Fargo and Marie Curtis Fargo, he attended Corona del Mar High School
, where he participated in track and field
and developed a desire to create video games after his parents bought him an Apple II
computer in 1977.
.
In 1983, Fargo founded Interplay Productions
prior to landing his first game contract in 1983 with Activision
. The game he created, Mindshadow, a graphic text adventure for the Apple II
and Commodore 64
, achieved moderate success.
After the release of Mindshadow, Fargo hired an old high school friend and started work to create a role-playing game (RPG) for the Apple II and Commodore 64 for a then-new publisher
, Electronic Arts
. The game turned out to be the original Bard's Tale, blending an RPG with music and color graphics. The game proved to be a huge critical and commercial success, the first many over the next four decades. Fargo’s Interplay subsequently released Bard's Tale 2 and Wasteland, an RPG that was inducted into Computer Gaming World
’s Hall of Fame. For its time, Wasteland was an immense game, where players could go anywhere and the effects of their actions could be felt throughout the game play universe.
Interplay at the time was utilizing small development teams of 1-3 people to produce games for other companies to publish, which only allowed Interplay to break even at best. Fargo decided in 1988 to make the transition from a development house to a developer/publisher, adding the additional costs of production and marketing, with both the risk and possible reward of producing successful games. The first title produced by Interplay in this era was Battle Chess
, a computer game version of chess in which the chess pieces come to life and battle one another when capturing each other. Battle Chess proved very profitable for Interplay. Subsequently, the company released Castles, which became a #1 selling title for Interplay. The company was also experimenting at the time with new ideas and products including a quirky little RPG based on the novel, Neuromancer
, by William Gibson
, which included the contributions of the band DEVO
and the late Dr. Timothy Leary
.
By 1992, Interplay contracted with an old friend of Fargo's, Ayman Adham, and his partner, Michael Morhaime
, to create the game RPM Racing. This was Adham and Morhaime's first contract to produce a game as Silicon and Synapse (name of developer), and was one of the first of many such finds for Fargo, who had an eye for recognizing talent in small development teams. Adham and Morhaime eventually changed the name of their company to Blizzard Entertainment
, developer of the huge MMORPG
World of Warcraft
.
Interplay continued to expand in the mid-1990s, adding licensed titles to its own intellectual properties (IP), by acquiring rights to the original Star Trek
and creating a series of adventure games that achieved critical and commercial success. Fargo continued to find talented small developers designing innovative games. One was Parallax Software
, whose demo game eventually became the #1 hit Descent. Parallax, now called Volition
, eventually was bought by THQ
where they went on to produce Red Faction and Saints Row.
In 1996, the company expanded again, adding a division focusing on sports games, called VR Sports, and by buying Shiny Entertainment
, creators of the Earthworm Jim
series. Fargo's goal in the acquisition of Shiny was to help Interplay transition into the console
business, in addition to its successful PC game releases. The addition of Shiny with the games MDK
and Sacrifice and the expansion into sports games met with some success for Interplay.
However, one of the most successful groups within Interplay was also formed during this period: Black Isle
. Black Isle focused on role-playing games and eventually included the games of a new developer called Bioware
. Initially Bioware was contracted for a game called Shattered Steel
for Interplay, which was less than a hit game. The next game they developed for Interplay, through the Black Isle division, was Baldur's Gate, which proved to be an amazing hit. Interplay's Black Isle then released an original IP, Fallout, that took some inspiration from Wasteland, yet was unique in its own right as a post-apocalyptic RPG. Fallout was a personal project of Fargo's, who served as Executive Producer and was involved in setting the tone and sensibilities of the game.
In 1998, Interplay filed for an Initial Public Offering
(IPO) of stock to fund future development and retire debt the company held. At the time, the market for IPOs had started to slow from the boom years of the early and mid-1990s, yet the need for capitol drove Fargo to file the offering. Increased competition, less than stellar returns on Interplay’s sports division and the lack of console titles forced the company to seek additional funding two years later with an investment from Titus. In 1999 the relationship between Fargo and majority shareholder Titus deteriorated, according to Fargo, due to a "different ideology of management" and in 2002, Fargo exited the company.
in 2002, a video game developer and publisher that includes many former Interplay employees. The name inXile is possibly a pun for his post-Interplay career, as Fargo’s title at the company is "Leader inXile".
inXile Entertainment released a re-imagination of the classic Bard's Tale game as one of its first titles, but has found success in a new category of downloadable games. Initially with the award-winning web game Line Rider
and then more recently with the highly successful Fantastic Contraption
, Fargo’s inXile entertainment has found critical and commercial success with iPhone
and Flash
games continuing Fargo's string of hit games into a fourth decade. The company also serves as a developer, and has released a major title for Bethesda called Hunted: The Demon's Forge
.
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
, producer and executive
Senior management
Senior management, executive management, or management team is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a company or corporation, they hold specific executive powers conferred onto them with and by...
probably best known for his company Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
.
Career Overview
Fargo started his career in the video game industry in 1982 and founded Interplay ProductionsInterplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
in 1983. His first games included The Bard's Tale and Wasteland. Interplay grew to over 600 employees at its zenith in the mid-1990s when it was designing and developing or producing such games as Descent
Descent (video game)
Descent is a 3D first-person shooter video game developed by Parallax Software and released by Interplay Entertainment Corp. in 1995. The game features six degrees of freedom gameplay and garnered several expansion packs...
, Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate is a computer role-playing game developed by BioWare and released in 1998 by Interplay Entertainment. The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a high fantasy campaign setting, using modified Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition rules...
and Fallout. Fargo, like many other entrepreneur CEOs, had a hand in the development of most games produced by Interplay.
In 1994, Universal/MCA
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
bought a 45% stake in the company which later went public in 1998. In 2000, Titus Software
Titus Software
Titus Software, later known as Titus Interactive S.A., was a long-running French software publisher that produced and published video games for various formats over its lifetime....
, a Paris-based game company, exercised a majority control of Interplay, and as a result, Fargo resigned his position with the company. Fargo started a new company, inXile Entertainment
InXile Entertainment
inXile Entertainment is a video game developer formed in late 2002 by Brian Fargo, a founder of Interplay Productions...
in 2002.
Early life and education
A descendant of the family that created the banking giants Wells FargoWells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home...
and American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
, Fargo was born in Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and grew up in Whittier
Whittier, California
Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California about southeast of Los Angeles. The city had a population of 85,331 at the 2010 census, up from 83,680 as of the 2000 census, and encompasses 14.7 square miles . Like nearby Montebello, the city constitutes part of the Gateway Cities...
and Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906, is a city in Orange County, California, south of downtown Santa Ana. The population was 85,186 at the 2010 census.The city's median family income and property values consistently place high in national rankings...
. The only child of Frank Byron Fargo and Marie Curtis Fargo, he attended Corona del Mar High School
Corona del Mar High School
Corona del Mar High School is a school located in the East Bluff neighborhood of Newport Beach, California, and belongs to the Newport Mesa Unified School District...
, where he participated in track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
and developed a desire to create video games after his parents bought him an Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
computer in 1977.
Career
Fargo started his career in the video game industry with his first video game called The Demon's Forge, a game he designed and marketed himself, and educational games for World Book EncyclopediaWorld Book Encyclopedia
The World Book Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia published in the United States. It is self-described as "the number-one selling print encyclopedia in the world." The encyclopedia is designed to cover major areas of knowledge uniformly, but it shows particular strength in scientific, technical, and...
.
In 1983, Fargo founded Interplay Productions
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
prior to landing his first game contract in 1983 with Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
. The game he created, Mindshadow, a graphic text adventure for the Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
and Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, achieved moderate success.
After the release of Mindshadow, Fargo hired an old high school friend and started work to create a role-playing game (RPG) for the Apple II and Commodore 64 for a then-new publisher
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
, Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
. The game turned out to be the original Bard's Tale, blending an RPG with music and color graphics. The game proved to be a huge critical and commercial success, the first many over the next four decades. Fargo’s Interplay subsequently released Bard's Tale 2 and Wasteland, an RPG that was inducted into Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
’s Hall of Fame. For its time, Wasteland was an immense game, where players could go anywhere and the effects of their actions could be felt throughout the game play universe.
Interplay at the time was utilizing small development teams of 1-3 people to produce games for other companies to publish, which only allowed Interplay to break even at best. Fargo decided in 1988 to make the transition from a development house to a developer/publisher, adding the additional costs of production and marketing, with both the risk and possible reward of producing successful games. The first title produced by Interplay in this era was Battle Chess
Battle Chess
Battle Chess is a computer game version of chess in which the chess pieces come to life and battle one another when capturing. It was released for the Commodore Amiga and subsequently on the 3DO, MS-DOS, Apple IIGS, Apple IIe, Commodore 64, Amiga CDTV, CD32, Atari ST, Apple Macintosh, Acorn...
, a computer game version of chess in which the chess pieces come to life and battle one another when capturing each other. Battle Chess proved very profitable for Interplay. Subsequently, the company released Castles, which became a #1 selling title for Interplay. The company was also experimenting at the time with new ideas and products including a quirky little RPG based on the novel, Neuromancer
Neuromancer
Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy...
, by William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
, which included the contributions of the band DEVO
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
and the late Dr. Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
.
By 1992, Interplay contracted with an old friend of Fargo's, Ayman Adham, and his partner, Michael Morhaime
Michael Morhaime
Michael "Mike" Morhaime is the president and a co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment , a video game developer located in Irvine, California, currently owned by Activision Blizzard...
, to create the game RPM Racing. This was Adham and Morhaime's first contract to produce a game as Silicon and Synapse (name of developer), and was one of the first of many such finds for Fargo, who had an eye for recognizing talent in small development teams. Adham and Morhaime eventually changed the name of their company to Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of UCLA, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce and currently owned by French company Activision Blizzard...
, developer of the huge MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
.
Interplay continued to expand in the mid-1990s, adding licensed titles to its own intellectual properties (IP), by acquiring rights to the original Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
and creating a series of adventure games that achieved critical and commercial success. Fargo continued to find talented small developers designing innovative games. One was Parallax Software
Parallax Software
Parallax Software was a video game developer best known for creating the Descent series of computer games. Parallax Software was started in 1993 by Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas. After the release of Descent II in 1997, the company was split to form Volition, Inc. in Champaign, Illinois, and...
, whose demo game eventually became the #1 hit Descent. Parallax, now called Volition
Volition
Volition may refer to:*Volition , the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action...
, eventually was bought by THQ
THQ
THQ Inc. is an American developer and publisher of video games. Founded in 1989 in the United States, the company develops products for video game consoles, handheld game systems, as well as for personal computers and wireless devices...
where they went on to produce Red Faction and Saints Row.
In 1996, the company expanded again, adding a division focusing on sports games, called VR Sports, and by buying Shiny Entertainment
Shiny Entertainment
Shiny Entertainment was an American video game developer based in Laguna Beach, Southern California, and the creator of several popular titles such as Earthworm Jim, MDK, Sacrifice and The Matrix: Path of Neo. Shiny was founded by David Perry in October 1993...
, creators of the Earthworm Jim
Earthworm Jim
Earthworm Jim is a run and gun platform video game starring an earthworm named Jim in a robotic suit who battles evil. Created by Doug TenNapel and designed by David Perry, the game was developed by Shiny Entertainment and Playmates Interactive Entertainment, released by Sega for the Mega...
series. Fargo's goal in the acquisition of Shiny was to help Interplay transition into the console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
business, in addition to its successful PC game releases. The addition of Shiny with the games MDK
MDK (video game)
MDK is a third-person shooter game developed by Shiny Entertainment and released in 1997 by Playmates Interactive Entertainment in North America and Interplay Entertainment in Europe for the PC, Macintosh, and subsequently PlayStation. It was one of the first PC games to require a Pentium or...
and Sacrifice and the expansion into sports games met with some success for Interplay.
However, one of the most successful groups within Interplay was also formed during this period: Black Isle
Black Isle Studios
Black Isle Studios was a division of the computer and video game developer and publisher Interplay Entertainment. Black Isle Studios was a division that developed computer role-playing games, and also published several games from other developers. It was based in Orange County, California, USA. The...
. Black Isle focused on role-playing games and eventually included the games of a new developer called Bioware
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. BioWare is currently owned by American company Electronic Arts...
. Initially Bioware was contracted for a game called Shattered Steel
Shattered Steel
Shattered Steel is an action game released in 1996 by BioWare for MS-DOS, and later ported to Mac OS by now-defunct Logicware. It is notable for the deformable terrain effects, and for being BioWare's first published game.-Story:...
for Interplay, which was less than a hit game. The next game they developed for Interplay, through the Black Isle division, was Baldur's Gate, which proved to be an amazing hit. Interplay's Black Isle then released an original IP, Fallout, that took some inspiration from Wasteland, yet was unique in its own right as a post-apocalyptic RPG. Fallout was a personal project of Fargo's, who served as Executive Producer and was involved in setting the tone and sensibilities of the game.
In 1998, Interplay filed for an Initial Public Offering
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
(IPO) of stock to fund future development and retire debt the company held. At the time, the market for IPOs had started to slow from the boom years of the early and mid-1990s, yet the need for capitol drove Fargo to file the offering. Increased competition, less than stellar returns on Interplay’s sports division and the lack of console titles forced the company to seek additional funding two years later with an investment from Titus. In 1999 the relationship between Fargo and majority shareholder Titus deteriorated, according to Fargo, due to a "different ideology of management" and in 2002, Fargo exited the company.
Post-Interplay: inXile
After leaving Interplay, Fargo looked to find outlets for his creative drive and founded inXile EntertainmentInXile Entertainment
inXile Entertainment is a video game developer formed in late 2002 by Brian Fargo, a founder of Interplay Productions...
in 2002, a video game developer and publisher that includes many former Interplay employees. The name inXile is possibly a pun for his post-Interplay career, as Fargo’s title at the company is "Leader inXile".
inXile Entertainment released a re-imagination of the classic Bard's Tale game as one of its first titles, but has found success in a new category of downloadable games. Initially with the award-winning web game Line Rider
Line Rider
Line Rider is an internet game. Versions are available for Microsoft Silverlight and for Flash. It was originally created in September 2006 by Boštjan Čadež , a Slovenian student...
and then more recently with the highly successful Fantastic Contraption
Fantastic Contraption
Fantastic Contraption is a Flash-based physics game created by Colin Northway, released September 16, 2008. Northway sold the rights to the game to inXile Entertainment who released the game for iOS on January 26, 2009. A sequel, Fantastic Contraptions 2, was released July 27, 2010...
, Fargo’s inXile entertainment has found critical and commercial success with iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
games continuing Fargo's string of hit games into a fourth decade. The company also serves as a developer, and has released a major title for Bethesda called Hunted: The Demon's Forge
Hunted: The Demon's Forge
Hunted: The Demon's Forge, is a third-person action video game set in a dark fantasy world. The game was developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. Hunted: The Demon's Forge was released in North America on May 31,...
.