What's so interesting is that through sheer force of will, Cain's stubborn mindedness resulted in a big financial success for Interplay, likely with an even more impressive ROI given how under-resourced they were.
While Brian's expensive, shiny pet projects resulted in huge financial losses for the firm (Stonekeep, Descent to Undermountain, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy). Cain's work directly injects cash into the business, Fargo is lighting cash on fire and can't manage the studio well enough to keep him.
It's a perfect encapsulation of why Fargo's newest studio, inXile, produces middling garbage. He's not a leader that inspires greatness. He has family money to invest in businesses and licenses/acquisitions. He gets lucky sometimes, but his luck appears random due to who he surrounds himself with. When he took an active role in games, it resulted in squandering of
~$10 musd in 2023 dollars and the efforts of over
200 hundred people (Stonekeep). He promoted Feargus to Black Isle's director, the same guy who passed on Battleground Infinity when it was first pitched to him (the then-name of Baldur's Gate), and couldn't manage Black Isle's well enough such that when Fargo told him that Cain should be involved in all the business decisions for Fallout 2 (like choosing the box art), it never happens.
Absolute clownshow, and really makes sense in light of inXile's and Obsidian's catalogue of games to this day.
edit: before getting accused of having a hate boner for Urquhart, you have to understand that his name is conspicuously absent from all of this. I think this is professional kindness Tim is showing him as they recently worked together, while Fargo is a distant memory.
