Wasteland 3 Interview

Roughly a year ago, Microsoft acquired inXile Entertainment. And now that inXile’s post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland 3 is finally nearing release, we get this GamesRadar+ interview with inXile’s boss Brian Fargo and Wasteland 3’s game director Tim Campbell where they talk about Microsoft’s positive influence on the upcoming RPG.

A couple of sample paragraphs:

Fargo is keen to note that it isn’t just the money that has made the difference here – although it certainly helps – it’s something more invaluable than raw cash flow alone: InXile has been given time. “It’s always the elephant in the room with game development, time. When you speak to the best developers in the industry – whether it is Rockstar or Blizzard – the biggest factor is always time. It’s the same across the group, it’s always time, time, time,” Fargo tells me, explaining that for studios the size of InXile any amount of added time can make a world of difference. “We think a certain way about development and we are run very tightly as a result. We’re not looking for three to six extra years, but three to six months. For a group like us, that can be night and day. Six months can make all the difference; six months could be a ’10 on Metacritic’ change for us.”

The small delay to May 19, 2020 out of Winter 2019 means that Wasteland 3, a game that would have been otherwise nearing completion, is now seeing some huge quality of life changes being introduced to play that undoubtedly make it better than it was before. “The nice thing for InXile is that Microsoft hasn’t changed what game we are making at all,” Tim Campbell tells me, Wasteland 3’s game director. “That is what some people I think were afraid of when they read about the acquisition. But really, Microsoft is just helping us do what we do but better, right?”