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Brian Fargo has stated his intention to buy back Interplay, the publisher he co-founded 35 years ago, but only if the recently released Bard’s Tale IV sells over two million copies in its first year and a half.
In a Tweet, inXile CEO Fargo stated his intentions very clearly:
“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.”
Interplay was originally founded in 1983 by Fargo, along with Troy Worrell, Jay Patel, and Rebecca Heineman. The studio was publisher of dozens of hits over the decades, from the first Bard’s Tale and Wasteland, through the original Fallouts, Baldur’s Gate, even titles like Earthworm Jim and Carmageddon II.
The publisher has been in something of a holding pattern for the past few years, bar the odd small release. If Fargo’s plans were to come to fruition he would pick up IP such as Earthworm Jim, Sacrifice, Kingpin and more – and with it already firmly established he’s a man happy to revisit past projects, with releases like Bard’s Tale IV and Wasteland 2 (and the upcoming Wasteland 3), the potential for new releases would definitely be there.
But all of this, for the time being, rests on Bard’s Tale IV doing good business. Which is a rather roundabout way of getting you to buy the game, truth be told.
