Brian Fargo: the cost of developing AA games has tripled in five years
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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