Assuming this won't turn in to a WMR Exclusive, this is great news! It's nice to see another major Player backing VR game dev's like this.
Microsoft just bought another big VR developer. inXile Entertainment, the developer of 2017’s excellent VR role-playing game (RPG), The Mage’s Tale, is joining Microsoft’s growing family of internal studios. The news broke this weekend an Xbox fan event where Microsoft also confirmed it was acquiring Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian. In a video announcing the news, inXile noted that the acquisition would allow the studio to continue developing the games it’s known for but at a higher level.
Formed by games industry legend, Brian Fargo, inXile is best known for its deep RPGs, including Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera. It brought its signature style to VR last year with The Mage’s Tale, which let you cast spells and do battle with evil creatures initially on the Oculus Rift and then later on the HTC Vive.
Shortly after the game’s initial release last year, though, we reported that inXile had raised $4.5 million in funding and was working on a new “open world survival RPG” for VR. Not only that, but the studio previously confirmed that it was bringing The Mage’s Tale to PSVR too. However, in tweets following the news, the studio noted that work on projects outside of Wasteland 3 and Bards Tale 4 were now ‘to be determined’. https://uploadvr.com/microsoft-buys-mages-tale-dev-inxile-new-vr-rpg-status-tbd/
And for anyone concerned that MS will just kill their VR Projects:
Microsoft also acquired UK-based developer Ninja Theory earlier this year, and the studio released the excellent Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice VR after that announcement. There’s still hope for inXile’s continued work in VR, then.
On a personal note, I have a long history with Microsoft. And based on what I've seen, this buyout will lead to a very strong VR release of their projects. I'm especially excited about the VR Open World RPG.
As a side not, I was born in the same small town that Rare was original based... Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, when they were Ultimate. Produced the best ever games for the Spectrum back in the day. Useless but interesting fact.
13700K, RTX 4070 Ti, Asus ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming, Corsair H150i Capellix, 64GB Corsair Vengence DDR5, Corsair 5000D Airflow, 4TB Samsung 870 , 2TB Samsung 990 Pro x 2, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, Quest, 2, 3, Pro, Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (10.0.26100)
i am not doom mongering either... but imo the ball is in microsofts court, the burden of proof is in MS so to speak imo, not the other way around. I have heard the "MS committed to PC gaming" spiel so many times. I do like the cross purchase stuff that they do... that is cool.
as for Rare... MS laid off the heart of the rare team (who later went on to make yookalaylee - not a perfect title granted, but better than most of the stuff from Microsoft's Rare imo)
1 thing is for sure.... time will reveal all.... I guess we will have to wait and see if the next few inXile titles are 1) any good or not and 2) support VR, and 3) if so whether they are windows store MR only devices or not.
Fiat Coupe, gone. 350Z gone. Dirty nappies, no sleep & practical transport incoming. Thank goodness for VR 🙂
Microsoft definitely doesn't have the best track-record when it comes to gaming. My favorite corporate move from MS is when they bought out Bungie and launched Halo; but that franchise is not without its controversy.
All of Microsoft's problems stem from that fact that it has way too many cooks in the kitchen. Everyone thinks that they know best, and strategies rarely align.
I'm hoping that this inXile buyout turns in to another Bungie situation, minus the exclusivity.
As a side not, I was born in the same small town that Rare was original based... Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, when they were Ultimate. Produced the best every games for the Spectrum back in the day. Unless but interesting fact.
Ultimate were amazing back in the day, along with so many of the classic companies, such as ocean, codemasters, firebird etc.
not many exist from back then... at least not the names.
Fiat Coupe, gone. 350Z gone. Dirty nappies, no sleep & practical transport incoming. Thank goodness for VR 🙂
As a side not, I was born in the same small town that Rare was original based... Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, when they were Ultimate. Produced the best every games for the Spectrum back in the day. Unless but interesting fact.
Ultimate were amazing back in the day, along with so many of the classic companies, such as ocean, codemasters, firebird etc.
not many exist from back then... at least not the names.
Let's not forget Westwood Studios and their amazing Command and Conquer and Dune series ... until EA bought them and completely buggered up the franchise.
Core i7-7700k @ 4.9 Ghz | 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance @ 3000Mhz | 2x 1TB Samsung Evo | 2x 4GB WD Black ASUS MAXIMUS IX HERO | MSI AERO GTX 1080 OC @ 2000Mhz | Corsair Carbide Series 400C White (RGB FTW!)
Well I guess no matter how bad the management becomes, and even if they're bad enough to ruin a company... the coders live on to code another day for some other company.So in that respect, we don't really lose out. Intellectual property arguments not withstanding.
13700K, RTX 4070 Ti, Asus ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming, Corsair H150i Capellix, 64GB Corsair Vengence DDR5, Corsair 5000D Airflow, 4TB Samsung 870 , 2TB Samsung 990 Pro x 2, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, Quest, 2, 3, Pro, Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (10.0.26100)
MS has picked up a total of 10 studios recently if I remember right. It's gettin' serious. It seems the main concern for some if not most of them was how long they were going to stay in business.
Well I guess no matter how bad the management becomes, and even if they're bad enough to ruin a company... the coders live on to code another day for some other company.So in that respect, we don't really lose out. Intellectual property arguments not withstanding.
That's exactly my thought process on it. So many classics resulted from developers spinning off and creating startup studios. Sometimes better than the companies they left. At the end of the day, the name of the studio doesn't matter as much as the talent behind it. I mean obviously having a well recognized studio makes it easier to acquire new talent but without the same core the games won't have the same feel.
based on their past MS didn't buy inXile to promote VR
but to promote their own VR hardware and MS Store by putting VR exclusives on it
These 2 statements contradict each other.
I'm surprised you didn't catch that : I'm saying MS isn't out to to promote VR "as a whole", the same way their Xbox was never about promoting non-VR gaming "as a whole".
