InXile raises nearly $3M via Kickstarter for Wasteland 2

It took about 24 years, but Brian Fargo finally has the cash to create the sequel to his beloved Wasteland game. Thanks to a successful campaign on Kickstarter, Fargo’s InXile Entertainment has raised nearly $3 million via the crowdfunding site.

More than 60,000 people have pledged to help fund the game, which will be a follow-up to the post-apocalyptic survival title that Fargo created in 1988. The title is the second major game to get funding through Kickstarter’s crowdfunding site, following a Double Fine Productions campaign that raised more than $3.3 million from more than 87,000 donors.

“I’m on cloud nine here,” Fargo said. “What an amazing ride. Never have I felt more pressure to deliver, but the fans will help guide the way.”

Fargo, the chief executive of InXile Entertainment and a veteran game-maker, was inspired by Double Fine’s Tim Schafer to come up with a slick and funny video pitching Wasteland 2. Now it looks like he’ll have more than enough money to fund the title, with $2,933,197 pledged versus a goal of $900,000.

Traditional publishers shied away from funding Wasteland 2. The original game was a single-player title with lots of characters. After it came out, Fargo’s former company, Interplay, switched over to making Fallout games. But Fargo has wanted to make an online multiplayer version of Wasteland for the Internet, where large parties can come together and play.

Pledges were for $15 or more. Fargo said in his Kickstarter video that Wasteland was made in the golden age of games when creativity was at its peak. As envisioned, Wasteland 2 is a turn-based, top-down, role-playing, party game set in a Fallout-like post-apocalypse game.

“This really might be a last chance for a Wasteland 2,” Fargo said in the video.

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