InXile Entertainment - Brian Fargo Interview @GamesIndustry

Brian Fargo spoke with GamesIndustry about why he joined with Microsoft.

"At least 50% of my time is in fundraising and we have so little room for error. It generally takes a mega hit to break you out of the cycle and that is always hard to come by. A mid-size hit is nice, but the after-tax monies from that generally support another five to six months of payroll and leave you back on the hamster wheel. It turns out that talented game developers are expensive. My friends always like to comment that I should 'just make a Fortnite or Minecraft'."

So it must be exciting to those stuck on the funding treadmill to hear that Microsoft, which has historically been only interested in high-end AAA studios, is openly acquiring mid-size game developers such as Ninja Theory, InXile, Obsidian and Undead Labs.

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Well, well, the sword of Damocles being games as a service.
I wonder how many years it will take until you need to subscribe to 3+ services to play all the games you want.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Well, well, the sword of Damocles being games as a service.
I wonder how many years it will take until you need to subscribe to 3+ services to play all the games you want.

Unless they manage to finally kill pirates they can take all those services and shove them up their…

I think we'll have parallel models for a while. My daughter uses Spotify for music. She doesn't actually own much music at all. If I were young, and didn't have the massive music collection I already do, I could see using Spotify. But I still have my classic mp3 and cd collection, which I occasionally add too. So Spotify doesn't interest me. If I was a young poor gamer, I could see using the Microsoft service rather than buying X games and adding to my already large games library. As it is I think games will be sold on the classical digital market so long as it is profitable for Microsoft and other companies to do so.

Well what do I know right?

I've said it before multiple times that crowdfunding does not provide enough income to to pay employees, and get the correct resources to make a good game.

One exception seems to be Larain.

1. Original Sin
2. Original Sin 2

Mostly due to selling millions of copies each.

It's fine for a small indie team of 1-5 people but not for a larger studio. Also it doen't help when your recent released games flop when you expected to sell a few million.

1. Torment: Tides of Numenera
2. The Bards Tale IV

Just look at what Obsidian made with their publishing deal with that division of Take 2 called Private Division. So I see this deal as a good thing with some negatives of course.

You forgot to mention Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Originally Posted by Archangel
You forgot to mention Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Nah it's not on my list yet as it didn't sell a few million yet & spawn a sequel. Just a quick reminder it was funded by a publisher, and a few other outside investors also.

Not just by the measly $900,000 backer money.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Nah it's not on my list yet as it didn't sell a few million yet & spawn a sequel. Just a quick reminder it was funded by a publisher, and a few other outside investors also.

Not just by the measly $900,000 backer money.

Neither was Divinity Original Sin 1. They also had investors.

Eh? Isn't this guy already crazy rich? When you google Brian Fargo loves Infinitron, you get all sorts of high life jetsetter party pictures.

Originally Posted by BoboTheMighty
Eh? Isn't this guy already crazy rich? When you google Brian Fargo loves Infinitron, you get all sorts of high life jetsetter party pictures.

Even if so does that mean he should spend his own money making games for a loss? Now he could self publish but that's his perogative. I would imagine funding games is risky financially so that's why bigger funders like Microsoft can survive flop or two. I doubt Fargo is so rich he could find a couple of flops himself. Or at least that's a good way to become unrich fast lol.

I totally understand Kickstarter games must be tough to fund as labor is expensive especially skilled labor.

If MS helps some mid size devs to have funding and still make creative and inventing games that would be great but color me skeptical.

Putting your own money in the show didn't work out so good for Kurt Schilling.

Of course, the Shark Tank people seem to want that commitment before they pony up cash to take 30% of your hard work.

I see Mr. Fargo is in Microsoft's "embrace" phase.

Games tied to a restrictive* platform = console games, wouldn't you say?
It doesn't matter that you may also use a PC to play them if the advantages of its open platform cannot be applied to the game. You're just going to have an xbox hiding inside your PC that plays your games.
Endoparasitically.

The question that still hasn't been answered by good old Brian: What would the Fargo from the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter video have to say to all that?

Originally Posted by Moorkh
The question that still hasn't been answered by good old Brian: What would the Fargo from the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter video have to say to all that?

Maybe younger him would say something like "It looks like Older me gave crowd funding the best try that he could with the 4 games he got funded, but he could see the bankruptcy writing on the wall after two low selling games so he did what he could to ensure his employees got at least a few more years work before Microsoft's sudden yet inevitable betrayal"?

Originally Posted by Avantre
Maybe younger him would say something like "It looks like Older me gave crowd funding the best try that he could with the 4 games he got funded, but he could see the bankruptcy writing on the wall after two low selling games so he did what he could to ensure his employees got at least a few more years work before Microsoft's sudden yet inevitable betrayal"?

But did he really? Maybe he just sunk those titles because he got cocky after Wasteland 2 and ran wild with his ambitions?

Bankruptcy is, alas, always on the horizon for an independent developer that is forced to put too many eggs in one basket. Now, of course, employment at a corporate giant is probably nice salary- and, eventually, severance-wise. But then again, delayed sudden unemployment means you are unemployed at a later point in your career/life, which tends to suck proportionally more.

I love the irony of Microsoft buying InXile and Obsidian