Wasteland 2 - Interview @ Eurogamer

Brain Fargo & Chris Keenan were interviewed on Eurogamer, and both of them talked  about porting Wasteland 2 to consoles, and what changes the PC will have.

Let's take things one step at a time, as inXile does. Brian Fargo tells me Wasteland 2 project lead Chris Keenan has promised him the recently-announced console versions will be out "late summer". I can hear Chris laugh over Skype when Brian mentions this vague launch window, but they're serious about it. And they've said it, now, on the record. And I've put it on the internet. So it has to happen.

"This isn't just a press-the-button port," Chris says. "We have a pretty intricate game."

The parallels are clear: Firaxis rebooted an old-school PC series for PC and console. InXile is doing the same, although the console versions arrive half a year after the PC version in the case of Wasteland 2. The combat in Firaxis' XCOM is a party-based and turn-based affair with a top-down camera perspective you can rotate. The combat in Wasteland 2 is the same.

"Their UI on console was the gold standard for handling a complex game in a way on console that was very satisfying," Fargo says. "We recognise that. We always look at the body of work that comes before us. We want to make sure we're looking at what gamers gravitate towards, and what they think is done right."

"[XCOM] is certainly a starting point for us," Keenan adds. "We want to make sure we have similar ease of use in controls."

InXile has already announced its working on migrating the Wasteland 2 codebase from Unity 4.5 to Unity 5. This is happening as we speak for the PC version, but all improvements and changes that come as a part of the game engine shift will be chucked into the console version, too. And vice versa, too. Soon you'll be able to play Wasteland 2 on PC with a controller, using the console UI being built for PS4 and Xbox One. And it doesn't stop there: Fargo says a SteamOS-specific interface is also being built to take advantage of the upcoming flood of Steam Machines.