Frank Brian Fargo (born December 15, 1962) is an American
video game designer
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...
,
producer,
programmer and
executive
Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to:
Role or title
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators
** Executive dir ...
, and founder of
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...
,
inXile Entertainment
inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Tustin, California. Specializing in role-playing video games, inXile was founded in 2002 by Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo. The studi ...
and
Robot Cache.
Biography
Early life
A descendant of the family that created the banking giants
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
and
American Express, Fargo was born in
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
, and grew up in
Whittier and
Newport Beach
Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island draws ...
. The only child of Frank Byron Fargo and Marie Curtis Fargo, he attended
Corona del Mar High School
Corona del Mar High School (CdM) is a public school located in the Eastbluff neighborhood of Newport Beach, California, and belongs to the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. It is a combination of a middle school (7th and 8th grades) and a ...
, where he participated in
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...
and developed a desire to create video games after his parents bought him an
Apple II computer in 1977.
Brian Fargo wrote his first video game, ''Labyrinth of Martagon'', with his friend
Michael Cranford
Michael Cranford (born June 5, 1963) is a video game designer and programmer. As a designer and programmer his works include '' The Bard's Tale, The Bard's Tale II, and Dark Seed.'' Cranford left the video game industry in 1992 to pursue an aca ...
while still in high school.
The team's first widely distributed game was the graphical text adventure ''
The Demon's Forge'', which Brian self-published and guerilla marketed in 1981 (and was later re-released by Boone Corporation).
In 1982,
''
Softline Magazine'' printed a letter from Fargo asking how
On-Line Systems stored graphics in its
graphic adventure
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
''
The Wizard and the Princess''.
During this time period he also wrote educational games for the ''
World Book Encyclopedia
The ''World Book Encyclopedia'' is an American encyclopedia. The encyclopedia is designed to cover major areas of knowledge uniformly, but it shows particular strength in scientific, technical, historical and medical subjects. ''World Book'' wa ...
''.
Interplay
In 1983, Fargo founded
Interplay Productions
Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...
prior to landing his first contract in 1983 with
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...
for ''Mindshadow'', a graphical text adventure game for the Apple II and
Commodore 64. After the release of ''Mindshadow'', Fargo hired an old high school friend and started work to create a role-playing game ''
Bard's Tale'' for the Apple II and C64 for a then-new publisher
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...
. Fargo subsequently co-designed Interplay's early RPGs, including the critically acclaimed ''
Wasteland
Wasteland or waste land may refer to:
* Desert or barren area
* an uncultivated area of land, whether wooded or not, whether common land or not
Art, entertainment, and media Comics
* ''Wasteland'' (DC Comics), 1987–1989 anthology-style horror/ ...
'',
where a character named Faran Brygo is a play on his name.
However, Interplay at the time was utilizing small development teams of one to three people to produce games for other companies to publish, which only allowed Interplay to break even at best. In 1988, Fargo decided 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 publishing successful games. The first title produced by Interplay in this era was the internally developed ''
Battle Chess
''Battle Chess'' is a computer game version of chess with animated three-dimensional graphics. It was originally developed and released by Interplay Entertainment for the Amiga in 1988 and subsequently on many other systems, including 3DO Inter ...
'', followed by
Quicksilver Software Quicksilver Software may refer to:
* Quicksilver Software, Inc. - Irvine, CA based developer of computer and video games and other software
* Quicksilver (software) - Utility software program for Mac OS X
{{Disambig ...
's ''
Castles
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified ...
''. The company was also experimenting at the time with new ideas and products such as ''
Neuromancer
''Neuromancer'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. Considered one of the earliest and best-known works in the cyberpunk genre, it is the only novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and ...
'', a video game version of the novel by
William Gibson
William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...
.
By 1992, Interplay contracted with an old friend of Fargo's,
Allen Adham
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three gradu ...
, and his partner,
Michael Morhaime
Michael "Mike" Morhaime (born November 3, 1967) is an American video game developer and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Dreamhaven, located in Irvine, California. Morhaime is best known as the co-founder and th ...
,
to create ''
RPM Racing''. This was Adham and Morhaime's first contract to produce a game as
Silicon & Synapse and was the one of the first of 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, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three gradu ...
, future developer of the ''
Warcraft
''Warcraft'' is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of five core games: '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', '' Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chao ...
'', ''
Starcraft'' and ''
Diablo'' franchises.
Interplay continued to expand in the mid-1990s, adding licensed titles to its own
intellectual properties
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
such as ''
Stonekeep'', by acquiring rights to the original ''
Star Trek'' and creating a series of its adaptations. Fargo also continued to find talented small developers designing innovative games. One was
Parallax Software
Deep Silver Volition, LLC (formerly Parallax Software Corporation and Volition, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Champaign, Illinois. Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog founded the company as Parallax Software in June 1993, developi ...
, whose demo game eventually became the hit game ''
Descent
Descent may refer to:
As a noun Genealogy and inheritance
* Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology
* Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology
**Pedigree chart or family tree
** Ancestry
** Lineal descendant
**Heritag ...
''. Parallax, later renamed
Volition, was eventually bought by
THQ
THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initi ...
. In 1994,
Universal/MCA bought a 45% stake in Interplay, which later went public in 1998.
[inXile entertainment]
Interplay grew to over 600 employees at its zenith in the mid-1990s. One of the most successful groups within Interplay was formed during this period,
Black Isle
The Black Isle ( gd, an t-Eilean Dubh, ) is a peninsula within Ross and Cromarty, in the Scottish Highlands. It includes the towns of Cromarty and Fortrose, and the villages of Culbokie, Jemimaville, Rosemarkie, Avoch, Munlochy, Tore, and ...
. Black Isle focused on role-playing games and eventually included the games of a new developer called
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...
, which was initially contracted by Interplay to make ''
Shattered Steel
''Shattered Steel'' is a Mecha, mech Vehicle simulation game, simulation 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 ...
''. The next game they developed for Interplay, through the Black Isle division, was ''
Baldur's Gate
''Baldur's Gate'' is a series of role-playing video games set in the Forgotten Realms '' Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign setting. The game has spawned two series, known as the ''Bhaalspawn Saga'' and the ''Dark Alliance'', both taking place mostl ...
'', which proved to be a big hit, followed by others, such as ''
Icewind Dale
''Icewind Dale'' is a role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and originally published by Interplay Entertainment for Windows in 2000 and by MacPlay for the Macintosh in 2002 (both the Classic Mac OS and OS X). The game takes pl ...
'' and the critically acclaimed ''
Planescape: Torment''. Black Isle's celebrated ''
Fallout
Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...
'', which took some inspiration from ''Wasteland'' but was unique in its own right, was a personal project of Fargo, who served as its executive producer and was involved in setting the tone and sensibilities of the game.
In 1996, the company expanded again, adding a division focusing on sports games called VR Sports and buying
Shiny Entertainment
Shiny Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Laguna Beach, California. Founded in October 1993 by David Perry, Shiny was the creator of video games such as ''Earthworm Jim'', '' MDK'' and ''Enter the Matrix''. Perry ...
. Fargo's goal in the acquisition of Shiny was to help Interplay transition into the
console
Console may refer to:
Computing and video games
* System console, a physical device to operate a computer
** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device
** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
business, in addition to its successful PC game releases. That same year, ''
Computer Gaming World'' ranked Fargo as the third most influential "industry player" of all time, as he "has shown both brilliant product vision and great business talents."
In 1998, Interplay filed for an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
(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 capital 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 Software, a Paris-based game company. In 1999, the relationship between Fargo and majority shareholder Titus deteriorated, according to Fargo, due to a "different ideology of management".
In 2000, Titus exercised a majority control of Interplay, and as a result, Fargo resigned his position with the company.
In addition to his work at Interplay, Fargo also formed an online entertainment company Engage! with partner
SoftBank
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...
in 1996, and sat on the board of
Virgin Europe in 1998.
[
]
InXile Entertainment
After leaving Interplay, Fargo looked to find outlets for his creative drive and founded inXile Entertainment
inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Tustin, California. Specializing in role-playing video games, inXile was founded in 2002 by Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo. The studi ...
in 2002, a video game developer and publisher that includes many former Interplay employees. The name inXile sprang from a joke for his post-Interplay career: initially, Fargo gave himself the title of "leader-in-exile" at the company.
InXile Entertainment released a new '' Bard's Tale'' as one of its first titles, released by Vivendi Universal Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...
, but has found success in a new category of downloadable games, such as ''Line Rider
''Line Rider'' is an internet game, with versions available for Microsoft Silverlight, JavaScript, Javascript, Windows, and Adobe Flash, Flash. It was originally created in September 2006 by Boštjan Čadež (also known as "fšk"), a Slovenian s ...
'' and '' Fantastic Contraption''. The company also developed a major title for Bethesda Softworks, '' Hunted: The Demon's Forge''.
In 2012, inspired by the success of '' Double Fine Adventures fan funded model, Fargo announced that he was going to attempt to fan-fund ''Wasteland 2
''Wasteland 2'' is a post-apocalyptic role-playing video game developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to 1988's ''Wasteland'', and was successfully crowdfunded through Kickstarter. After the postponement o ...
'' using the webservice Kickstarter. The project's fundraising campaign reached its $900,000 funding goal in its second day and Fargo said hopes that all of his future projects involve Kickstarter as it "offers all the freedoms that a developer hopes for." The ''Wasteland 2
''Wasteland 2'' is a post-apocalyptic role-playing video game developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to 1988's ''Wasteland'', and was successfully crowdfunded through Kickstarter. After the postponement o ...
'' Kickstarter campaign ended on April 17, 2012, raising a total of $2,933,252, making it the third highest crowd funded video game on Kickstarter to date, with an additional $107,152 in PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
pledges. The Kickstarter campaign was documented in the documentary, Capital C.
On March 6, 2013, Fargo followed through on his promise to fund future projects through Kickstarter and launched '' Torment: Tides of Numenera'', described as "a story-driven CRPG crafted in the tradition of ''Planescape: Torment'' and set in the world of Monte Cook's Numenera." The project reached its goal of $900,000 in just six hours and went on to break the Kickstarter record for fastest project to reach $1 million. The previous record had been held by the Ouya
The Ouya ( ), stylized as OUYA, is an Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP of Product Management to ...
video game console which reached $1 million in 8 hours 22 minutes; ''Torment'' reached this amount in less than seven hours.
In May 2015 Fargo revealed The Bard's Tale IV and his intentions to launch a Kickstarter for it on June 2, 2015. It is a direct continuation of that story from the previous The Bard's Tale games. The Kickstarter concluded on July 10, 2015 with a final pledge total of $1,519,681 USD and 33,741 backers.
In March 2017, Fargo had announced his plans to retire from inXile following the release of ''Wasteland 3''. However, in November 2018, Microsoft Studios
Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...
announced their intention to buy inXile and make the studio a subsidiary. Because this would provide the studio with significantly more resources, Fargo stated he no longer plans to retire but instead will continue to lead the company.
Robot Cache
Fargo announced the founding of Robot Cache, a new digital games storefront for personal computer games expected to go live in Q2 2018. Robot Cache will deliver games via blockchains which can be decrypted or re-encrypted through the service; this will effectively allow players to buy and sell digital games without publishers fearing that the original owner can retain a copy after selling. This allows the service to ensure a higher percentage of each game sale goes back to the publisher; publishers are set to receive 95% of original game sales, and 70% of used game sales. While the site will accept normal forms of payment, it will also use a new cryptocurrency called Iron, which users will receive when reselling games and can be applied towards the purchase of new or used games.
Others
Fargo was a founder member of the board of advisors for Fig
The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...
, a mixed investment/crowdfunding platform, since its launch in December 2015. As part of his involvement, he used Fig to crowdfund development of ''Wasteland 3''. With inXile's purchase by Microsoft Studios, Fargo plans to remain on the board to help determine which games that Fig should support, but otherwise does not plan to use Fig for funding.
Works
References
External links
Brian Fargo
on Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fargo, Brian
1962 births
American chief executives
American video game designers
American video game directors
American video game producers
Living people
People from Long Beach, California
Video game writers
Video game businesspeople
Interplay Entertainment people
Xbox Game Studios