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Company News Brian Fargo talks about inXile's plans for Van Buren at Eurogamer

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Tags: Brian Fargo; Chris Avellone; Fallout 3 (Van Buren); InXile Entertainment; Torment: Tides of Numenera

Leader-in-exile Brian Fargo took a break from his Bard's Tale IV campaigning today to talk a bit about his Van Buren trademark, which was uncovered by the Codex last year, over at Eurogamer. It looks like he and Chris Avellone have something planned, and there's a little bit of news on Torment as well. I quote:

In December last year, inXile boss Brian Fargo - founder of Interplay - trademarked Van Buren. inXile, remember, produced last year's excellent Wasteland 2 - a game being tidied up for a console release and PC and Mac re-release this year.

Fargo had only vague confirmation at the time. "The [RPG] codex investigative unit strikes again," he sort of nodded.

I spoke to Fargo recently, however, and he had more to say - implying he intends to make something Van Buren with Chris Avellone, if and when inXile has time. (Avellone retains close ties to inXile, having been involved in Wasteland 2 and, now, Torment: Tides of Numenera.)

I asked if Fargo was doing anything with the Van Buren trademark. "Not yet," he replied. "But there were some things, some ideas, that Chris Avellone had for doing something that made the post-apoc - a twist on the whole what-was-being-done that we really loved. So we talked about it and we thought why not grab the rights so we can entertain this one of these days.

"But nothing now," he stressed. "We have enough on our plate to be doing that right this second."

One of the eye-catching ideas Black Isle had for Van Buren was that the player would run into other players in the game world. You'd have a series of rivals that weren't necessarily enemies - more parties you would compete against, with different goals. They weren't necessarily evil, but they would have a different agenda. You would run into conflict with them over the course of the game.

InXile only last week launched a Kickstarter campaign for new game Bard's Tale 4 - a graphical showpiece in comparison to the retro-styled Wasteland 2. The game is inches away from its $1.2m goal with a month still to go.

In addition, inXile is also making Torment: Tides of Numenera - a thematic successor to the philosophical Planescape Torment from years ago. It has a Q4 2015 release date but Fargo wouldn't commit to a 2015 release when we spoke.

"We have to get to our backers pretty soon, the beta version or Early Access or whatever you want to call it," he said, "and that is coming here late summer. The [final release] date gets determined based upon that."

While inXile now owns the trademark for Van Buren, the developer is unable to use any Fallout-related material in a possible game. Everything brand Fallout is owned by Bethesda, and it keeps a tight ship when it comes to copyright. Perhaps more likely is the Van Buren name is used for a new post-apocalyptic role-playing game unrelated to Fallout.

Beyond those games, and possibly Van Buren, Fargo also has original new ideas for games he'd like to do.

"What's left?" he mulled. "I've got so many ideas of things I'd like to do. I have some pet projects of mine I would love to do that are not sequels to hits in any way. It will be interesting to see how that all works out as we start to get into more speculative titles."​

Hmmm. If the beta is in late summer (which means August, I guess?) then that means the systems alpha ought to be arriving any day now.
 

Tigranes

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Yeah, just like Black Hound, I don't really see a whole lot there that can reasonably be revived at this point. Many of VB's things were poached for NV anyway. Fargo also makes it clear that there's literally nothing concrete in plan yet.
 

naossano

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I don't understand why they grabbed a "trademark" that is essentially a in-studio codename based on the name of old dead american presidents (BG3 was called "Jefferson"). Granted, after all these years the name has catchet with classic Fallout fans (who are probably a big part of Fargo's audience), but still...

Indeed, i don't see what the trademark would get them, except troubles from Beth.
 

Athelas

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I don't understand why they grabbed a "trademark" that is essentially a in-studio codename based on the name of old dead american presidents (BG3 was called "Jefferson"). Granted, after all these years the name has catchet with classic Fallout fans (who are probably a big part of Fargo's audience), but still...

Indeed, i don't see what the trademark would get them, except troubles from Beth.
A headline like 'mega-company sues independent developer of niche RPG's' might just be the key to ensuring Kickstarter success.
 

Jaesun

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Indeed, i don't see what the trademark would get them, except troubles from Beth.

A trademark allows them to make a game called Van Buren, and bethesda/interplay can't do a single thing about it.

However they can't use any of the IP/assets from the old Van Buren, but Obsidian already did that for the most part for NV.
 

SausageInYourFace

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I wonder what kind of twist MCA could put on the post-apoc setting that it makes it worthwhile to produce another completely new post-apoc IP instead of just going for a Wasteland 3.
 

himmy

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I don't understand why they grabbed a "trademark" that is essentially a in-studio codename based on the name of old dead american presidents (BG3 was called "Jefferson"). Granted, after all these years the name has catchet with classic Fallout fans (who are probably a big part of Fargo's audience), but still...

Symbolic links to the Fallout games, no matter how thin, will greatly improve the media coverage. The article we are commenting right now is proof enough of that, the first in a series of many that will increase the profile of the project before it even begins.
 

Latro

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I wonder what kind of twist MCA could put on the post-apoc setting that it makes it worthwhile to produce another completely new post-apoc IP instead of just going for a Wasteland 3.
something post-humanity in addition to post-apoc would be cool, not sure what that'd look like without resorting to fantasy race tropes tho
 

Cazzeris

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I'd put my bet in some kind of spin-off for Wasteland's universe. Maybe inXile could re-use that idea about a cult formed by Ronald Reagan's worshippers and include Martin Van Buren on it. This could end well since most MCA's contributions for Fallout were (perhaps) a bit too "lulzy", so he'd probably feel comfortable leading a Wasteland project (again, the first one is his favorite RPG; so there's not much to doubt here). Who knows which other ideas for Van Buren were scrapped or what's on Avellone's mind.

Though it'd be weird to see him actively working for inXile while abandoning the company he co-owns and where he hasn't made anything important for years.
 

m_s0

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Van Buren + MCA + Tim Cain ( hopefully ) = :bounce::bounce::bounce:
The issue with this is that Obsidian doesn't have the rights to Van Buren, MCA has shit to do as an Obsidian bigwig, Tim Cain might have some beef with Fargo, and neither of them are paid to be working full-time for a different company than the one they're employed by. At best they'd be human stretchgoals or creative supervisors, or whatever. Fairly inconsequential.

Plus, Van Buren is basically plundered at this point, the design docs have been floating around for years, there's that fan project (unless it's dead - I haven't been following it since the announcement)... Based solely on the title this isn't anything worth being too excited about.
 

The Bishop

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Journalistic job among other competences requires you to be able to write a 14 paragraph article even when you really, really didn't manage to dig any news.
 

throwaway

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He can't possibly have laweyrs comb through all of the potential content to safeguard himself from Beth. Think there's as little a plan as he claims.
 

Ismaul

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Just Fargo yanking our chain.

Wasteland 2 was kickstarted as a Fallout successor, and since it wasn't received as well as he would've wanted, now he needs a reason to tap into those hopes again when Wasteland 3's turn comes (most likely next kickstarter). A "Van Buren" successor is just what he needs to string us along, so we're good and ready to give him our wallets.

He's monetizing our dreams.
 

WhiteGuts

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I wonder what kind of twist MCA could put on the post-apoc setting that it makes it worthwhile to produce another completely new post-apoc IP instead of just going for a Wasteland 3.
something post-humanity in addition to post-apoc would be cool, not sure what that'd look like without resorting to fantasy race tropes tho

A mix of cyberpunk and post-apo, maybe. Untapped genre if there was one.
 
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I wonder what kind of twist MCA could put on the post-apoc setting that it makes it worthwhile to produce another completely new post-apoc IP instead of just going for a Wasteland 3.
something post-humanity in addition to post-apoc would be cool, not sure what that'd look like without resorting to fantasy race tropes tho

A mix of cyberpunk and post-apo, maybe. Untapped genre if there was one.
cC1968ql.jpg
 

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