Obsidian reaches tentative agreement to co-develop Wasteland 2

Fallout New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment has reached an agreement to co-develop Wasteland 2 with inXile entertainment…under one condition.

If the Wasteland 2 project funding level reaches $2.1 million on Kickstarter, the RPG developer Obsidian will collabroate on the game design and writing, working directly with the team at inXile to help bring Wasteland to life.  The current Wasteland Kickstarter project sits at $1.6 million so there's still a ways to go.

"I have a history with the guys at Obsidian that dates back to the days of Interplay’s Black Isle studios. Together we created some of the greatest RPG’s of all time, from Fallout 1 & 2 to titles like Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. It is great that we now have a chance to reunite on a project like Wasteland 2," said Wasteland creator Brian Fargo, who is currently heading up the Kickstarter project.

Fargo believes this collaboration with Obsidian, which will be lending their experience and tools, will allow him to focus more energy on the game

“Obsidian has an incredible library of story, dialog and design tools that they have used to create hits like Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, and of course, Fallout: New Vegas. Regardless of the tech we use to develop the game, experience with these tools will help us efficiently design the game without wasting time and resources on the tools needed for development."

"Wasteland is one of my favorite RPGs of all time, and when Brian asked if I wanted to work on the sequel, I jumped at the chance. While I've worked on Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas, getting the chance to work on the spiritual predecessor to the Fallout franchise is a honor," added Obsidian's Chris Avellone.

In order for the collaboration to work, Wasteland 2 needs to find enough backers in the next 17 days to bring the total funding to $2.1 million. If you would like to help, visit the game's Kickstarter page.  For those who live in countries where donating thorugh the Kickstarter/Amazon pay system is not possible, Fargo has set up a new Paypal account for pledges to go directly through the Wasteland web portal.

inXile has also officially announced Mac OS X and Linux versions of Wasteland 2.  Fargo has said that the more money they are able to raise, the more features the game will include in the end. We recently had a chance to talk with Brian Fargo about Wasteland 2; see what he had to say.