The history of post-apocalyptic video games began in 1988, when Electronic Arts published a game developed by Interplay Productions in the years before they became Interplay Entertainment. The precursor to the acclaimed Fallout series, Wasteland was quickly embraced as a critical darling and would garner praise for decades to come. One thing it would not get, however, is a sequel.
Thanks to crowd-funding, Brian Fargo, the director of the original Wasteland and also the mind behind the Fallout series, has been producing a sequel at inXile Entertainment for over a year. Joining hands with Chris Avellone from Obsidian Entertainment, the developers at inXile seek to resurrect the old RPG experience by giving Wasteland 2 an unprecedented level of depth and sophistication.
Wasteland 2‘s Kickstarter broke records a year ago and received more than triple the original $900,000 the developers asked for. The reward tiers for fans who contributed included physical and digital copies of the game, and other rewards including books, T-shirts, and even personalized content that would make its way into the game.
Now inXile Entertainment has announced that they will soon make content rewards unavailable. “As development progresses we’re reaching the point where we have to start finalizing additional content. For that reason, we will stop taking orders on tiers $500 and above on July 31st.” This announcement suggests that the team is getting ready to enter the beta stage. With the game’s release stated to be sometime in October 2013, the announcement fits the general timeline given by inXile when the Kickstarter first achieved success.