Black Isle resurrecting Project V13 with a crowdfunder

Black Isle Studios, the Interplay subsidiary that was recently reformed, has launched a crowdfunding scheme for its first comeback game -- but it's rather different to your average Kickstarter. The studio is best known for the Baldur's Gate franchise and Fallout 2, and was closed down in 2003. However, parent company Interplay revived Black Isle earlier this year, albeit with a different team. Now the company has launched a crowdfunder for Project V13 -- the game previously known as Fallout Online and in development by Masthead Studios and Interplay, until earlier this year when Bethesda retained the rights to the Fallout universe as part of a legal dispute. In a bid to not let the work on Fallout Online go to waste, Black Isle has removed all references to Fallout from the game, and has continued to work on the title as a separate entity. There is no word as to whether Masthead is still involved with the game. The crowdfunding scheme for the game is not your typical pledging initiative. Backers will not receive a copy of the finished game, or indeed any product at all, but will instead be offered access to a Black Isle forum. Unlike most crowdfunding initiatives, the pledged money isn't going towards the finished product, but rather, a Project V13 "proof of concept" prototype, which Black Isle will then attempt to use to raise the additional funds necessary to finish up the main game. This means that backers don't even receive the promise that the final game will actually be released. As of yet, there aren't many details regarding how similar Project V13 is to the original Fallout Online, or even what type of game it is. "PV13 has been in development for years, but we've had to make some major changes recently," reads a statement from the team. "We believe the changes are for the better and we're excited about working on this new iteration of PV13."