2018 and 2019 saw Microsoft turning things completely around for their first party situation, making a flurry of acquisitions to add a number of high profile studios to the Xbox Game Studios lineup. One of these – and among the more notable ones – was inXile Entertainment, developers of the upcoming Wasteland 3. For this studio, not only did this mean more resources to work with for future projects- but also for the game they were working on at the time of the acquisition.
Speaking recently to GamingBolt in an interview, when asked about how they see their acquisition by Microsoft shaping the future for them, Brian Fargo, Studio Head, said they had “been able to ramp up the talent here in a big way,” before adding, “the future is very exciting.”
The results have already been felt, however. Microsoft’s acquisition of inXile also allowed more resources and more time for the development of Wasteland 3, which resulted in more testing, more user research, and more tangible improvements to the game, such as fully voiced dialogue.
“More resources and more time are the sweetest words any developer can hear,” Fargo told us. “We’re a small studio and so we cherish every week and day we can have on a milestone or deadline. They’ve also been a huge benefit in offering us additional testing and user research, as well as allowing us to expand and increase the quality across the board. Fully voiced dialogue being one of those.”
We also asked him if the fact that the game will be launching day and date on Xbox Game Pass has in any way impacted their approach to its development in terms of things like accessibility – the way it has for some other Xbox Game Studios titles – and Fargo said that that was indeed the case, especially in terms of ensuring “the first few minutes of gameplay are welcoming and captivating.”
“We definitely look at how Game Pass players engage with games there, and specifically how important the first few minutes of a game are,” Fargo said. “When you can download and dip into and out of a game almost instantly, it’s even more important to ensure those first few minutes of gameplay are welcoming and captivating.”
Wasteland 3 is out for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on May 19. A beta for the game is currently ongoing. Our full interview with the development team will be going live soon, so stay tuned for that.
