Wasteland 2 not for the console crowd

Brian Fargo updates the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter page with news on what's coming next.

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Now that the Wasteland 2 project is rapidly approaching the $1.5 million mark in Kickstarter funds (still with 25 days remaining), InXile's Brian Fargo updated the fans and supporters on what's next.

Fargo has maintained that that $1.5 million mark would allow additional development of the game for both Mac and Linux. He added that no matter how much they receive though, there is no plan to bring Wasteland 2 to any console or handheld platform.

"It is imperative that we deliver the core PC experience that the fans are expecting here and I want to avoid any elements that could distract us," he said. "The console interface is quite different when you consider the input device and proximity to the screen whereas the Mac and Linux are pretty much identical to that of the 'PC'. We will consider a tablet version due to the similarity of the screen and interface but even on that we need to do a bit more research."

Fargo also relayed the story of one backer who confessed to pirating the original Wasteland and was donating to help make up for it. The "pirate" donated $10,000.

Fargo also proposed a plan to keep funding going for game development projects. Once a project has shipped and created profit, 5 percent of that profit will funneled back to the development community. He is calling the project "Kick It Forward."

"Imagine the potential if another Minecraft comes along via Kickstarter and produces millions of dollars of investment into other developers," he said. "This economic payback will continue to grow the movement way beyond the current system."

A bold plan, and one that could easily take ghold given the wave of Kickstarter success recently. Both the Double Fine Adventure project and the Wasteland 2 project were funded in quick order.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 22, 2012 3:00 PM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Wasteland 2 not for the console crowd.

    Brain Fargo updates the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter page with news on what's coming next.

    • reply
      March 22, 2012 3:04 PM

      Forget the mac version also.

      I'd rather have more npc/quest/whatever.

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      March 22, 2012 3:15 PM

      Forget the PC and Linux version.

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      March 22, 2012 3:21 PM

      Forget the C64 version

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      March 22, 2012 3:52 PM

      "He added that no matter how much they receive though, there is no plan to bring Wasteland 2 to any console or handheld platform."
      Now this is my kind of person :)

      • reply
        March 22, 2012 5:50 PM

        My hero

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        March 23, 2012 4:18 AM

        Really? Your hero wouldn't port his game to platforms that don't affect you if he had infinite money? I'm impressed

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          March 23, 2012 5:02 AM

          I'm fully okay with him fucking over consoles if he wants to just a publishers fuck over the PC.

    • reply
      March 22, 2012 3:55 PM

      <3

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      March 22, 2012 5:43 PM

      Speaking of tablet, mr Fargo why don't you first fix The Bards Tale so it will be compatible with the new iPad and not crash on start up.

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        March 23, 2012 4:58 AM

        Loved the original Bard's Tales. Spent way too many hours on it. Would love to see a sequel.

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          March 23, 2012 5:50 AM

          One of the original Bard's Tale programmers (Becky "Burger" Heineman) is keen to do a Bard's Tale 4, ignoring the spoof game that Brian's team did in 2004, and going back to the original concept of a serious, party-based RPG

          See her MattChat* interview about The Bard's Tale IV and Wasteland 2 from Dec 2010:
          http://youtu.be/JBg6L4H7WdE

          * not me

          Incidentally, Becky is working at UbiSoft, and previously worked on the development of Microsoft's Kinect sensor.

      • reply
        March 23, 2012 5:54 AM

        I think an update just came out for that.

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          March 23, 2012 6:21 AM

          App store still says that its not compatible with the iPad 3. :( haven't see any updates hit yet.

    • reply
      March 22, 2012 9:15 PM

      I primarily play on 360. Shame I can't play the game. Oh well.

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        March 23, 2012 12:50 AM

        I'm pretty sure the PC you used to type that post will be powerful enough to run the game.

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          March 23, 2012 1:38 AM

          joke is on you, he used his phone. seriously guys if you have seen how "console ready gui and input" fucks with a real pc interface as seen in the otherwise glorious witcher2 you would consider it a good thing to not have the initial gamedesign fucked with.

          also i doubt that there is a audience on the console for this game.

    • reply
      March 23, 2012 12:49 AM

      http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2

      If that really is how publishers behave no wonder we have dog turds like CoDogturd getting rehashed year after year after year.

      :(

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      March 23, 2012 1:33 AM

      i really want them to succeed. i think in a way he is even more qualified to deliver a good gaming experience with the funds ,due to the genre, than doublefine which given how motherfucking ron gilbert and timoflegends are the headliners there is a heck of an assumption.

      more money for an rpg on specific platforms seem like a better idea than "lets do a port for the ngage port of the adventure cause we have too much moneyhats."

      as much as i loved the hilarious updates for doublefine i think fargos pitch was actually better in terms of vision for the game.

      and i liked how he offered to pitch in 100k of his own money to round up to a million, didnt want to be paid or offered 5% of the winnings to fund other indy games on kickstarter.

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      March 23, 2012 1:48 AM

      with a first name like Brain how can this end up being anything but amazing

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        March 23, 2012 3:35 AM

        No no... it's Bri... ah, I see what you did there ;)

        LOL.

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          March 23, 2012 5:23 AM

          you mean what Keefer did there

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            March 23, 2012 5:38 AM

            LOL, I'm sure Brian would love me for that unintentional slip of the keystroke. I fixed it, although it probably won;t appear since the chatty thread was already created.

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      March 23, 2012 3:56 AM

      Not sure if anyone has mentioned this an a discussion before, but the only problem I see with Kickstarter funded games is trying make a decent profit (especially since this project has the Kickforward pledge).

      Isn't it possible all of these Kickstarter games will not sell well enough to earn a decent profit? I say this because the people who have backed the games (and paid enough to secure a copy on release) , the fans, are the same ones who would buy it anyway? The customers have already paid.

      Anyway, not a black and white argument as it IS possible enough will buy after release to make a profit, just a thought, not a bashing.

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        March 23, 2012 5:12 AM

        My guess is mostly the hardcore fans are the ones contributing, and that they are a small percentage of the total group who will buy copies.

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        March 23, 2012 5:24 AM

        Once this hits steam, it'll do just fiiine.

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        March 23, 2012 6:38 AM

        The moment they release they start making profit, thanks to Kickstarter the game can be published with no liabilities. If you mean profit enough to go onto other similar projects without needing external funding, they will be in a much better position than most releases of their kind to make that profit.

        Kickstarter generates an excellent kind of word of mouth - the ambient social marketing is literally putting its money where its mouth is and putting a dollar value on the very concept of the game, sight unseen of any product. That, for lack of a better word, grants the game prestige which most indie releases don't enjoy even after a successful launch and many sales, let alone before their release.

        The other thing is, yes the game has some 30,000 backers, but that doesn't mean every hardcore RPG guy just threw money at his screen and started salivating the moment he heard about this. Millions played and loved Fallout 1 and 2 as well as Wasteland, so for every one of those 30,000 there is probably ten guys at least who did love FO1 and FO2, Wasteland 1 and a bunch of other games, but aren't about to spend money to buy a game that doesn't even exist yet. They will wait patiently and watch to see what happens over the coming months and read reviews of the game and then make their buying decisions.

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      March 23, 2012 6:19 AM

      Beautiful man. Keep it up.

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      March 23, 2012 6:27 AM

      [deleted]

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      March 23, 2012 7:59 AM

      YES!!! Keep bringing love to the PC gamers!

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        March 23, 2012 1:46 PM

        And it will be torrented in the millions just like all hit PC games are.

        I used to love PC gaming, and bought games, but the piracy is so stupidly widespread it murders developers - for example Looking Glass Software. They could not have garnered any more critical or fan praise - and they barely got any sales and had to close.

        If nothing else games *sell* on consoles, meaning developers are able to survive. Deus Ex Human Revolution sold, in the space of a single year, at least twice as much as the original sold over the course of a decade.

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      March 23, 2012 11:08 AM

      Ya know what though. I'm not to fussed about them not bringing this to consoles. Sure I have all the major consoles too but with the recent snubbing of the PC from most of the major companies out there its good to see a developer give back to the crowd of people who got them to where they are now.... pc gamers.

      This fact is why I bought in at the $75 dollar mark on the kick starter.

      I don't like shitty PC ports to console. Funny though how most PC games that are ported to console are not usually effected much by the porting.

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