Interplay
In 1983, Fargo founded Interplay Productions prior to landing his first contract in 1983 with Activision for Mindshadow,[5] 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. Fargo subsequently co-designed Interplay's early RPGs, including the critically acclaimed Wasteland,[6] where a character named Faran Brygo is a play on his name.[7]
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, followed by Quicksilver Software's Castles. The company was also experimenting at the time with new ideas and products such as Neuromancer, a video game version of the novel by William Gibson.
By 1992, Interplay contracted with an old friend of Fargo's, Allen Adham, and his partner, Michael Morhaime,[8] to create RPM Racing. This was Adham and Morhaime's first contract to produce a game as Silicon & Synapse and was one of the first of such finds for Fargo, who had an eye for recognizing talent in small development teams.[9] Adham and Morhaime eventually changed the name of their company to Blizzard Entertainment, future developer of the Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo and Overwatch franchises.
Interplay continued to expand in the mid-1990s, adding licensed titles to its own intellectual properties 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, whose demo game eventually became the hit game Descent. Parallax, later renamed Volition, was eventually bought by THQ. In 1994, Universal/MCA bought a 45% stake in Interplay, which later went public in 1998.[10]
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. Black Isle focused on role-playing games and eventually included the games of a new developer called BioWare, which was initially contracted by Interplay to make Shattered Steel. The next game they developed for Interplay, through the Black Isle division, was Baldur's Gate, which proved to be a big hit, followed by others, such as Icewind Dale and the critically acclaimed Planescape: Torment.
In 1996, the company expanded again, adding a division focusing on sports games called VR Sports and buying Shiny Entertainment. 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. 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."[11]
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 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".[9] 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 in 1996, and sat on the board of Virgin Europe in 1998.[10]
