Brian Fargo Acquires Torment IP Rights, Spiritual Successor in the Works?

The folks at RPG Codex did some internet sleuthing and came up with some interesting news: apparently inXile’s CEO Brian Fargo now owns the Torment IP.

It should be noted that the IP is not tied to the Planescape universe, which is currently discontinued, meaning that even if the company were to work on a successor to the beloved Infinity Engine title, it most likely would be a spiritual follow-up rather than an actual sequel.

Most of our readers will likely remember Colin McComb’s write-up on the original title, which in light of this news probably means that he’s involved in the project (assuming a project exists, of course) in some measure.

Considering Chris Avellone, who wrote the bulk of the original’s dialogue, is probably going to be tied up to Project Eternity after wrapping up his work on Wasteland 2, his potential involvement is at the very least up in the air.

Update: Colin McComb posted on the RPG Codex to specify that the license holder wasn’t interested in licensing the Planescape setting:

I’ll put up a post later about the relative importance of Planescape to the Torment story, but right here I’ll say that WotC has little apparent interest in licensing Planescape. I first approached them in February, and it became clear early on that they didn’t seem very interested in talking to me.

That’s okay, though. Other, equally cool options exist.

Update 2: Colin has written some more thoughts on the Torment story and the connection a new title would have with Black Isle’s classic in an RPG Codex post:

As far as I’m concerned, MCA told a complete and beautiful story. If Chris wants to add sequels, that’s his prerogative. If I added direct sequels, that would be fan fiction. I *like* that the question of what happens to his companions after the game has ended remains unanswered. Adding more details cheapens the impact of the original, and the unanswered questions about the companions makes their stories more powerful.

That’s why Chris and I have both said that we would not be involved in sequels; we don’t need to wrap up every loose end. Spiritual successors, yes – there are Torment stories that are untold. But not sequels, at least not right away (the last clause is just in case Chris discovers a new story he wants to tell with those companions).

So why do I want to use Torment? Because it was a deeply personal, philosophically engaging story that was not tied to the fate of the world – it *is* the end of the world for some characters, and it can sweep across the depths of infinity, but it remained a story about one man and the impact he had on those around him. Using Torment in the title tells you what kind of game it is. It’s a specific story about a specific kind of person, a thematic link.

For the people who insist the game be a Planescape game, I have two points:
1. As I said, WotC does not appear to be interested in licensing Planescape.
2. Anyway, countless people told us that a Planescape game would never succeed, because it was “too weird.” We just had to tell them to trust us – we had it handled. As you’ve seen, we did.

I’m not going to ask you to trust me just yet (I enjoy not having feces flung at me), but I will ask that you keep an open mind until you see what I’m thinking.