Fallout Creator Credits Kickstarter for Saving His Studio Now InXile Is Building a Massive Xbox RPG
Brian Fargo, one of the original minds behind Fallout and Wasteland, has revealed how a desperate 2012 Kickstarter campaign helped save his studio, InXile Entertainment and ultimately paved the way for its current work under Xbox Game Studios.
Fargo, the former Interplay co-founder and a veteran of the CRPG genre, is best known for leading development on Wasteland, which later inspired the Fallout series. As executive producer of both Fallout and Fallout 2, Fargo’s fingerprints are all over the DNA of post-apocalyptic RPGs. But at one point, InXile was on the verge of collapse.
A "Hail Mary" Kickstarter Saved InXile
According to Fargo, the studio's survival hinged on a single make-or-break moment: the crowdfunding campaign for Wasteland 2. Launched in 2012, the Kickstarter ended up raising a whopping $2.9 million which was a massive success that allowed InXile to return to the style of role-playing games that made them famous.
"That Kickstarter campaign was a Hail Mary pass to allow us to go back to making the kind of role-playing games we wanted to, and eventually being part of Microsoft,” Fargo said in a recent social media post.
The success of Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera brought new life to InXile and positioned the studio for acquisition by Microsoft in 2018.
Clockwork Revolution: The Studio's Boldest Project Yet
Now, InXile is deep into development on its most ambitious project to date: Clockwork Revolution, an immersive steampunk RPG with a distinctly British flair. The game was first revealed during the Xbox Showcase in 2023, drawing comparisons to genre heavyweights like BioShock and Dishonored. They also released a new trailer during the Xbox Showcase in 2025. Check it out down below:
Recent previews have emphasized its immersive sim mechanics, world reactivity, and choice-driven gameplay.
"Clockwork Revolution has all the crunchy systems and reactivity you’d expect from us,” said communications director Micah Whipple in a post on Xbox Wire.
The game emphasizes player agency, a core tenet of the CRPG legacy InXile helped build. From branching dialogue to timeline-altering decisions, the project is shaping up to be a true evolution of the immersive sim and narrative RPG formula.
Kickstarter Also Helped Save Obsidian
InXile isn’t the only Xbox-owned studio with a crowdfunding origin story. Obsidian Entertainment another veteran RPG developer was also rescued by Kickstarter in the early 2010s. The studio’s Pillars of Eternity campaign gave it a vital financial lifeline that ultimately led to Microsoft acquiring them in 2018 as well.
Together, both studios exemplify how the rise of Kickstarter in the early 2010s gave indie and mid-tier developers the autonomy they needed to survive and eventually thrive under major publishers like Microsoft.
What’s Next?
Clockwork Revolution is slated to release in 2026, though a specific launch date has not yet been announced. Based on early reactions and internal confidence from Xbox, this could become one of the most important RPG releases in the coming generation.
For Brian Fargo and InXile, it’s a full-circle moment one that began with desperation and now sees them building their most ambitious title yet, with the full backing of Microsoft and the legacy of Fallout and Wasteland behind them.
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