Brian Fargo has returned to the world of gaming with a new company dedicated to bringing quality video games to the market. inXile entertainment’s first title is based on one of the most highly successful original computer role-playing games (RPG) and number one hit, The Bard’s Tale. inXile will satisfy the original game’s cult-like fans, who have generated a decade of frenzied rumors and web petitions, by creating a modern interpretation of the classic genre for next generation console gaming platforms and the PC. The name of the title will be The Bard’s Tale worldwide (the final name is undetermined for the United States, pending trademark proceedings).
Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, inXile entertainment is striving to be the benchmark for a new generation of computer game publishers by modeling their production and financing after Hollywood production companies like Miramax and New Line Cinema. Similar to a motion picture production company, inXile is funding its production by selling off territorial distribution rights and taking additional financial risk itself for increased profitability.
“After a nice break from the industry I’m recharged and anxious to make great games again,” said Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile entertainment. “I have collaborated with some of the top people in the industry to create inXile. We believe our success will lie in our business model, our intensive pre-production development philosophy, our commitment to creating an enriching atmosphere for creativity and teamwork and our focus on developing a limited number of triple A titles at a time.”
The Bard’s Tale combines the development team’s collective knowledge of compelling RPG gameplay with brilliant graphics and major motion picture quality story and dialogue. Unlike most RPG games produced today, The Bard’s Tale will eschew genre clichés in favor of intelligent humor for an original and truly entertaining experience. inXile’s development focus on the RPG genre comes from Brian Fargo’s long legacy of delivering standard-setting RPGs to market. While inXile’s principals headed production at their previous game company they won RPG of the Year crowns four years in a row.
The initial The Bard’s Tale, produced by Brian Fargo and published by Electronic Arts, originally shipped to market in 1985 on the Apple II computer and quickly achieved both commercial success and critical acclaim. It quickly became a #1 seller and later spawned two sequels and a series of books. The series went on to sell over 1 million copies worldwide. The game achieved numerous awards and industry fame and eventually was inducted into Computer Gaming World magazine’s Hall of Fame and GameSpy’s Hall of Fame. Because of the resurgence in pop culture of fantasy-based stories and the intense popularity of the RPG genre, bringing back this classic franchise utilizing the latest technologies is sure to be a success with gamers around the world.
inXile entertainment was founded in 2002 by industry veteran Brian Fargo, who turned one of the first small game developers from the early 1980s into one of the top 5 PC game publishers of the 1990s. Development focus is on producing Role-Playing Games (RPGs) from a legacy of releasing iconoclastic RPGs to market like Wasteland, Dragon Wars, Fallout, Neuromancer, and Baldur’s Gate.
