Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #31: OMG DISTRIBUTION DEAL, also new HUD screenshots
Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #31: OMG DISTRIBUTION DEAL, also new HUD screenshots
Game News - posted by Infinitron on Thu 11 July 2013, 16:46:20
Tags: inXile Entertainment; Plaion; Wasteland 2Today's Wasteland 2 Kickstarter update announces inXile's cooperation with German p...pu...publisher Deep Silver for the game's physical distribution:
In the comments, line producer Thomas "Brother None" Beekers clarifies:
Sounds good to me, although the anti-publisher purists among you may disagree. I imagine that the vast majority of Wasteland 2 sales will be on Steam, but even there Valve take their 30% cut. Such is life.
Anyway, leaving that aside, the update also comes with a new screenshot of Highpool, a location from the original Wasteland, which is meant to demonstrate the current state of the game's HUD (click to enlarge):
inXile also generated another screenshot of the same location, but with the HUD customized in a different way, to demonstrate its flexibility. Graphically, the UI seems to be a bit rough (oh god that End Turn button) though I'm informed that this is all still heavily WIP.
Finally, the update announces that Wasteland 2 has a new Tumblr blog, which is meant to replace the old one that nobody ever updated. If it's anything like Torment's Tumblr, then it should be an excellent source of regular Wasteland 2 updates. Hey Obsidian, how about creating something like that for Project Eternity?
inXile Entertainment and Deep Silver today announced a distribution deal for inXile’s upcoming cRPG Wasteland 2. Deep Silver is a veteran publisher and already a long-standing partner for inXile.
inXile is currently working on Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera, both funded via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.
The deal allows inXile Entertainment to focus on all creative aspects of developing the game, while Deep Silver handles the retail release of the game and the physical good fulfillment for the Kickstarter backers.
“This is a perfect opportunity for inXile: it allows us to continue to focus all of our energy and money into the creative aspects of the game while letting Deep Silver take our game outside of the pure digital space. This has the added bonus of allowing us to spend more of the Kickstarter funds on development while continue to retain all ownership and control”, says Brian Fargo, CEO inXile Entertainment. “I’ve known the people at Deep Silver for many years and they have always been a first rate organization to deal with.”
Deep Silver will also assist inXile in the QA testing of the localized international versions of the game.
“The uber-successful crowdfunding of Wasteland 2 through Brian Fargo and his team has shown how much interest for an RPG with traditional values still exists on consumers’ side aside from what large publishers think the market needs. Deep Silver is very happy to support inXile Entertainment in bringing Wasteland 2 to the retail market”, comments Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Koch Media.
In the comments, line producer Thomas "Brother None" Beekers clarifies:
To answer some quick questions:
@tarasis Only physical versions will be handled by Deep Silver. Digital distribution is all done directly by inXile.
@Michaeljack We still determine the release date, Deep Silver has no influence on that.
@coperoco It was planned to find *a* partner all along and I think Brian has said as much in earlier interviews, we let you guys know as soon as we had one. Backers are getting a lot out of it; this deal represents a significant swing in budget so we have more money and time to spend on WL2 (quite a bit more) and because a third party handles fulfillment we won't have the physical goods creation and shipping problems some other Kickstarters have had.
@dropkickpickachu Deep Silver gets money for sales from copies they distribute. They do not get any money from the Kickstarter budget nor any money from digital sales.
Sounds good to me, although the anti-publisher purists among you may disagree. I imagine that the vast majority of Wasteland 2 sales will be on Steam, but even there Valve take their 30% cut. Such is life.
Anyway, leaving that aside, the update also comes with a new screenshot of Highpool, a location from the original Wasteland, which is meant to demonstrate the current state of the game's HUD (click to enlarge):
inXile also generated another screenshot of the same location, but with the HUD customized in a different way, to demonstrate its flexibility. Graphically, the UI seems to be a bit rough (oh god that End Turn button) though I'm informed that this is all still heavily WIP.
Finally, the update announces that Wasteland 2 has a new Tumblr blog, which is meant to replace the old one that nobody ever updated. If it's anything like Torment's Tumblr, then it should be an excellent source of regular Wasteland 2 updates. Hey Obsidian, how about creating something like that for Project Eternity?
