Last week we learned that InXile, makers of Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera, were starting work on another project. The team aren’t yet saying what it is but they said that it was “another RPG that has been passionately demanded of us for a while now.”
Speculators suggested it would be A Bard’s Tale or Baldur’s Gate but two recent trademark acquisitions suggest otherwise.
RPG Codex spotted that Roxy Friday, a subsidiary owned by InXile founder Brian Fargo, recently filed trademark claims for both Van Buren and Meantime.
Van Buren is the long awaited but never released Black Isle-made Fallout 3. Although Bethesda now own the license to Fallout and have released their own Fallout 3, that principle design work on Van Buren still exists. It could be that InXile want to incorporate that into a future Wasteland title or else release Van Buren as a game loosely tied to the world of Fallout. It wouldn’t be the first time, Torment: Tides of Numenera is set in the same universe as Planescape Torment but isn’t a direct sequel as InXile couldn’t secure the rights.
The second trademark is for an RPG called Meantime. Back in 80s Interplay wanted to follow the success of Wasteland with another RPG set in the same universe. What they came up with was a time travelling adventure in which you could recruit historical figures like Amelia Earhart and Cyrano de Bergerac to your party.
Meantime was cancelled almost 30 years ago but it would be excellent to see such an inventive RPG finally get made.
Fargo hasn’t gone so far as to confirm which project the studio are working on, only to suggest the RPG Codex team were spot on with their investigation:
@RPGCodex The codex investigative unit strikes again.
— Brian Fargo (@BrianFargo) December 6, 2014