Brian Renadette September 18th, 2018 - 7:34 AM
The Bard’s Tale 4 releases today, and Brian Fargo, the head of inXile Entertainment, has announced some very interesting plans if the game sells very well. He has announced the possibility of buying back Interplay, the company he helped found back in 1983.
In a tweet posted on his official Twitter account, Brian Fargo made a very special stretch goal for his newest game:
I'm asked what would we do if Bard's Tale 4 PC is a big hit.
How about this stretch goal. I will attempt to buy Interplay back if we manage to sell over 2 million units in the first 18 months.
@wouldntthatbeawesome
— Brian Fargo (@BrianFargo) September 17, 2018
Brian Fargo later confirmed this in an e-mail sent to Vanity:
“I certainly am. My fans have been requesting me to bring back my old Interplay games for years and this would be the most amazing way to make that happen.
Interplay is a company that was first formed back in 1983 by Brian Fargo, Troy Worrell, Jay Patel, and Rebecca Heineman. In its prime, it gave us a variety of franchises we know today, such as the original Fallout games and Wasteland. It also gave us the original The Bard’s Trilogy, Planetscape: Torment, and Baldur’s Gate. Despite making many classic games, it struggled financially and filed for bankruptcy in the early 2000s. In order to stay afloat, it sold off some of their licenses, including the sale of the Fallout IP to Bethesda in 2007, who went on to make Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, and the soon to be released Fallout 76.
Of course, even if The Bard’s Tale 4 hits its goal of over 2 million units, Brian Fargo’s plan hinges on whether the current owners of Interplay are willing to sell. Fortunately for those wanting to see it happen, Interplay has expressed interest in selling in the past. In 2016, Interplay announced a plan to sell out their entire portfolio. That plan never went anywhere, but that could have simply been because they couldn’t find a buyer. A company selling off their video game library and assets is different from selling a company, but it’s definitely not too far of a leap.
