In early November, Microsoft announced the purchase of inXile Entertainment. Founder and president Brian Fargo spoke about how the deal will affect the company in an interview with Eurogamer. We provide a brief version of the material.
Brian FargoNegotiations on the purchase began in April.
- Microsoft was the first to make a proposal.
- As the head of the studio, Brian Fargo sees his task as “bringing the company to a quiet harbor” where she could spend as much time as necessary on game development.
- According to the head of inXile, there are two ways to start a company in a “quiet harbor”: either sell two million copies of the game, or make a deal.
- inXile now employs 70 employees. Another 15 people work under contract. Fargo assesses the size of the team positively. However, he plans to increase the number of employees by 30% to “close the holes.” For example, hire a full-time audio specialist, lighting specialist, someone who will do commercials, and so on.
Wasteland 3 Now inXile wants to focus on “raising the visual style” of their games, learning how to launch projects “more smoothly”.
- At the same time, the company does not plan to completely abandon isometry in future projects.
- Fargo considers the projects that the studio is engaged in to be AA-class.
- The development of AA projects in 2012 cost $5-6 million. Therefore, the studio did not have enough $ 3 million raised with the help of Kickstarter to finance Wasteland 2. It had to release the project in early access and, thanks to it, get the necessary $ 2 million to recoup the development.
- Today, the cost of developing an AA project has tripled. To develop such a project that does not meet current standards, it will already take $ 15-20 million.
- Fargo also stated that inXile will strive for new projects to be closer in quality to AAA games. However, we are not talking about the creation of long-term buildings and a five-year development cycle. It’s about being able to focus on polishing the product before release.
The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows DeepThe company will no longer raise money through crowdfunding.
- The projects announced before the deal with Microsoft will also be released on consoles that are competitive for the new owner.
- After Wasteland 3, Fargo is still not going to retire, as he announced earlier.
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