A few new rumors have surfaced today, sharing details on the next games in development at inXile Entertainment and Tango GameWorks, both of which are now under Microsoft’s umbrella.
inXile Entertainment, as you’ll likely remember, was acquired by Microsoft alongside fellow RPG-making company Obsidian Entertainment in late 2018. The studio released Wasteland 3 in August 2020, openly stating that Microsoft’s backing allowed them to delay the game and polish it far more than what they could have otherwise done on their own. The game turned out to be a success, having registered over two million players by the end of 2021.
Even before the release of Wasteland 3, however, inXile founder and CEO Brian Fargo confirmed the studio had begun working on a next-generation RPG powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine 5. A few months later, he added that a second project was just starting its own pre-production phase.
One of the projects was later rumored to be a Steampunk first-person RPG led by some former developers of Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, the foremost example of a Steampunk roleplaying game. The Arcanum IP is currently owned by Activision Blizzard, and today Reddit user cat__statue found the following mention on the LinkedIn profile of a former inXile Game Designer:
I provided research and setting development for an upcoming video game. [Established IP, Project still under NDA].
That sparked rumors that the inXile game could be an official sequel to Arcanum. However, that is unlikely, as the Activision Blizzard deal isn’t closed yet and the game has been in development for years. The studio has surely worked on its own Steampunk universe and would have to retrofit everything at this point. It’s far more likely that the established IP is the one the second project is based on. As for what that might be, it’s anyone’s guess at this point, though fans would certainly like to see inXile tackling a Fallout isometric RPG in the vein of Wasteland.
As for Tango GameWorks, Spanish Xbox insider eXtas1s said in his latest podcast that the Japanese studio behind Ghostwire: Tokyo (recently released on Xbox and Game Pass) and Hi-Fi Rush is working on a Japanese roleplaying game and on another project that will be based on a new IP. If he is to be believed, there are currently no sequels in the cards for either of the franchises made by Tango so far: The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Hi-Fi Rush.
eXtas1s previously revealed the Baten Kaitos remaster and the Overdose leaked footage, though of course, a grain of salt should be required, as with all rumors.
