It seems that inXile Entertainment is up to something exciting. With Wasteland 2 now out and production for Torment: Tides of Numenera in full swing, inXile appear to be planning for the future. That’s according to RPG Codex, who have spotted a few trademarks filed by Roxy Friday.
Roxy Friday was set up by Brian Fargo, founder of inXile, for this exact trademarking purpose. The first trademark is for Meantime, a time travel RPG that was in development by Interplay back in the ’80s as a follow-up to the original Wasteland - sadly it was cancelled, but perhaps this is the game’s revival.
The second, and this will get you Fallout fans all hyped up, is for Van Buren. Van Buren was the codename for what was going to be the original (Black Isle’s) Fallout 3 before Interplay (Black Isle’s parent company) went out of business and Bethesda snapped up the license. There are some screenshots and a demo lurking about the internet that were released a few years back, which have left fans of the original isometric Fallout 1 and 2 wondering what could have been.
What do these trademarks mean? Could it be that inXile are preparing to release a spiritual successor to the original Fallout 1 and 2 under the Van Buren codename? Brian Fargo had the following to say on twitter:
@RPGCodex The codex investigative unit strikes again.
— Brian Fargo (@BrianFargo) December 6, 2024
While that’s not exactly a confirmation, Fargo and his team certainly seem to have something in the works. If inXile is planning a resurrection of Van Buren, it’s unlikely that it will carry the Fallout name unless it’s a collaboration between the developer and Bethesda. That said, there’s plenty of gamers who’d love to see that original vision finally come to fruition - ourselves among them.
