inXile Entertainment joins Microsoft Studios

[phimseto]

Hi everyone, big news today for inXile Entertainment. Brian discusses the news in the video here. Check it out!

https://youtu.be/Qg1Nu65iG7o

All of us at inXile are pretty excited. For an indie company, plugging into this kind of institutional support is going to let us realize the visions we have for our games that much more completely. We’re also happy because it means we get to keep the band together, starting with Brian’s retirement party being canceled.

inXile is still going to be inXile. Anyone who follows Microsoft, whether their own games, second party titles, or ID@XBOX program knows that they have a proven commitment to diverse gaming. Microsoft hired us because of who we are, and that’s a group of developers who love making and playing RPGs. That is what we’re going to keep doing, with work continuing on The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep, The Bard’s Tale Trilogy, Wasteland 3, and beyond. I’m sure there will be more news as we move forward on this, but for now we’re content to just share in the good news and get thinking about what comes next.

And we thank you again for all your support. Long live the RPG!

[drithius]

...as well as Obsidian. Mind blown. Good luck you guys!

[Condar]

Wow...on one hand I'm glad you and Obsidion are gonna get the backing you guys need. But on the other hand I'd hate to see you all Bioware'd and chewed up, which is what usually happens once indies get bought. I wish you all the best of luck.

[Gizmo]

Good luck, and I wish you the best.

[shmerl]

Why?! inXile was one of the great studios that supported DRM-free Linux gaming. Now with MS buying you, what will happen? I have zero trust in MS letting developers make games for competing markets. Will they now shut down all your future Linux releases?

And I have even less expectation in preserving the DRM-free stance. It's MS we are talking about. Some comment on that from inXile would be really appreciated. Right now it feels like a major let down for your backers.

[shmerl]

Anyone who follows Microsoft, whether their own games, second party titles, or ID@XBOX program knows that they have a proven commitment to diverse gaming.

All I noticed from their gaming division is sickening push for lock-in, DRM and exclusives. MS haven't joined Khronos Vulkan working group, instead they are pushing their DX12 lock-in. So I'm very skeptical about this claim of diversity. I'll be glad to be proven wrong on this one, if you'll continue releasing DRM-free Linux games.

[Metallix]

As both a Torment: Tides of Numenera and Wasteland 3 backer I am hugely disappointed in InExile for this move...

Especially since Microsoft is well known for screwing over it's developers.

[phimseto]

We'll still be keeping our backer commitments for BT4 and WL3. Beyond that, I couldn't say. It's early days yet.

[Metallix]

We'll still be keeping our backer commitments for BT4 and WL3. Beyond that, I couldn't say. It's early days yet.

Is that written into your contract with Microsoft?

[Zadkiel]

Who now owns your IPs?

[IHaveHugeNick]

All I noticed from their gaming division is sickening push for lock-in, DRM and exclusives. MS haven't joined Khronos Vulkan working group, instead they are pushing their DX12 lock-in. So I'm very skeptical about this claim of diversity. I'll be glad to be proven wrong on this one, if you'll continue releasing DRM-free Linux games.

Wake up and smell the cocoa, last two Inxile games have been a catastrophic commercial disaster and the revenue from Linux version most likely didn't even cover the cost of making a port. They had to sell to stay alive, and Microsoft can keep them alive. 5 people who are playing 30 year old RPGs on Linux won't.

[Jalis]

Said it on Facebook, will say it again; this is great news for fans of inXile and its RPGs. The likelihood of a Bard's Tale V and beyond are much greater now.

[Gizmo]

One of my favorite developers [bought by Microsoft] was Caligari Corporation... Does anyone here remember them?

[Grohal]

Mmmh, if I hadn't wittnessed what became of Bioware, Blizzard, and all the others that "joined big families" maybe I would see only the potential here with InXile AND Obsidian under one big flag... but then I saw it. And I fear the worst. I hope I am wrong here.

[shmerl]

We'll still be keeping our backer commitments for BT4 and WL3. Beyond that, I couldn't say. It's early days yet.

Well I don't expect MS to sabotage crowdfunding commitments (that would backfire even for them), but I totally expect them to axe DRM-free Linux releases of your future games. Since you yourself couldn't say, it's already not reassuring. It means you didn't make it part of the acquisition requirements. So MS can do whatever they want in this regard, and their anti-Linux and pro-DRM gaming reputation is well known.

I guess we'll have to wait and see if they'll live up to their claims that "MS loves Linux".

[Woolfe]

I see this as a good thing.

[Taryl]

I keep seeing old-time computer gaming devs crowdfund upon visions of the good things in the past, and then betray them. It's truly annoying, and I'm beginning to think that this is true face, and what I believed of them in the past was just ignorance and naievity. 'No publishers.' 'PC Gaming.' Right. Managed to nix both of those in one go. You do understand that you are making console games from now on? You can port that kind of garbage to a PC, but it's still a console game. And as for the future of your employment, I'm sorry to say that your bosses just screwed you. No dev house that sold to a publisher ever had a bright future. In that video, Fargo is repeating the hopes of the 1990s, regarding what happens next when a dev joins a publisher. Now ask yourself what happened to all those companies, that joined publishers in the 1990s? Why did Brian Fargo have to found InXile?

This post is negative, and possibly not very respectful. But I don't like people insulting my intelligence by saying one thing and then doing the opposite, and expecting me not to notice.

So long, and thanks for all the... oh, wait. The Linux release hasn't, yet. Well, thanks for that fish when it's caught, and we'll be seeing you around the industry at your future employers.

[Jalis]

Some of you haven't really been paying attention to Microsoft Studios, E3 2018, etc. Go say all that to Undead Labs. The Coalition. Rare. Mojang. 343.

You may not agree, you might not like some of the games put out by these studios before or after, but the point is, Microsoft has made a concerted effort to support smaller, indie dev houses, and not gotten in their way.

And say what you will about Activision, Blizzard, etc.... but most can only hope to achieve that kind of success. If this move means inXile will be around to continue pushing its RPG IPs... we all win in some way or another, even if BT5 is unfortunately a clone in style/mechanics to BT4 (which many of us wouldn't want)... because without this move, I suspect we wouldn't see much more from that kind of thing in any format.

To each their own, it's hip to hate on M$, I get it.

[Acid]

I hope creative freedom to make the games they want to was part of the deal.

[shmerl]

it's hip to hate on M$, I get it.

It's not like they don't deserve negative reactions. Their gaming division is one of the worst when it comes to lock-in and shenanigans of the '90s. You say they don't stand in the way of the creators. But it's the same division that refused to participate in the Vulkan working group. Instead of helping the industry, they pushed for stuff like DX12 and UWP. I don't see that as not standing in the way.