inXile Founder Shares Insight on Their Future Under Microsoft
Home » Articles » Game Articles » inXile Founder Shares Insight on Their Future Under Microsoft

inXile Founder Shares Insight on Their Future Under Microsoft

Recently inXile Entertainment the developer known for the Bard’s Tale IV and upcoming Wasteland 3 shares what this actually means for their development team and the projects they work on.

inXile Founder Shares Insight on Their Future Under Microsoft

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, inXile expresses the outcomes of their recent deal with Microsoft. With the increasing costs for the development of AA games, getting a title off the ground isn’t what it used to be. An interview with Brian Fargo the company’s founder and video game developer sheds some light into the recent acquisition.

While the environment of gaming has changed over the years there is one good conclusion that hasn’t changed, according to Brian Fargo it’s this:

I tell you what hasn’t changed: in order for us to survive we’ve got to do good games.

With a company that has relied on crowdfunding such as Kickstarter as way to get titles to the finish line, their transition in joining Microsoft definitely gives them freedom when it comes to backing games financially.

The budgets back then were $5m, $6m, so we’d raise $3m from Kickstarter, maybe do another couple of million in Early Access, throw in some more of our money, and you’d be pretty close to having your costs covered.

But since then, the category of what we all consider to be double-A has raised from $15m to $20m in that short period of time. The landscape has changed greatly since then.

One things for sure is that Fargo isn’t ready to go down without a fight, when asked about the studio’s health when it came projects he replies:

 I’m a survivor, so I always have a plan B, C and D at all times. There were a few companies wanting to give us big contracts recently so I always had that as an option, and some of the projects were really interesting….

…so perhaps I would have had to mix it up a bit and continue with things like Wasteland 3 but maybe do a work-for-hire contract at the same time.

A topic that fans are eager to find out is what will happen to current projects in the works, such as the Bard’s Tale 4 that was promised on console, in response to whether it would still be arriving on PS4 Fargo said:

We’re still working through the issues, and where we’ve made commitments, we want to keep them. In the short-term, I don’t think a lot’s going to change.

What Fargo seems to value is that inXile’s team can now grow, adding further resources to their productions. When asked about how the acquisition could affect the company he responded:

Use Bard’s Tale 4 as an example: you had a 50-hour game, 350 speaking parts, 100 minutes of music – I did that with a 35-person team. That’s pretty unheard of. When you start thinking, gosh, if we had another 15 people and another three months…

But their goal is not to completely dive into triple-A titles but to find “somewhere in between”. He goes on to talk about the future of isometric games, whether they would leave them entirely:

We’re not necessarily walking away from isometric at all. There’s still some great things you can do with it that haven’t been done yet.

Hopefully inXile Entertainment find synergy with Microsoft Studios, enabling them to not only enhance their gaming projects but nurture their creativity and continue to do what they do best.

inXile Entertainment’s latest tile the Bard’s Tale IV: Barrens Deep is currently available to play on PC and later for console which has not yet been announced.


If you are tackling the tactical RPG the Bard’s Tale IV you should check out our guides in Bard’s Tale 4 – Rogue Class Guide and Bard’s Tale 4 – Bard Class Guide.  You can also read more news abut inXile in InXile Assures Wasteland 3 And The Bard’s Tale IV Will Continue To Be Multiplatform.

About the Author

Games

Comments

Log in to leave a Comment

Latest from Fextralife