The many teams under the Microsoft Game Studios banner are working on a number of exciting upcoming projects. One such example is Wasteland 3 developer inXile's next game, which is currently unannounced. What's previously been hinted at by inXile is that it'll be a new first-person RPG, which could mean a dungeon crawler akin to Bard's Tale 4 or something more in line with other games within Microsoft Game Studios. Now, a new report claims that inXile's RPG is something else entirely: a steampunk RPG codenamed Project Cobalt.
The report comes from Jez Corden during the latest Xbox Two podcast, in which he gives a surprisingly unclear summary of early details about inXile's project. The one detail Corden says with confidence is that inXile project is codenamed Project Cobalt. They're less confident in saying that it's a steampunk RPG, saying it's "supposedly" as such. They then go on to say less certainly that they "suspect" it's in first-person, which is odd considering that's the info that's previously been shared by inXile itself.
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Corden also teases that they know more about Project Cobalt than they're saying, but are choosing to withhold that information. The only other thing they say about the game is that they aren't sure when it's likely to release, meaning that it could still be very far off. It's unclear what other information Corden could be withholding about the first-person project.
As noted, inXile previously teased its next project on social media. Xbox shared a game of sorts where followers could click on a short video and whatever word they paused on would be the next game they play. inXile replied saying it landed on the words "NEW+RPG+FPS." This information was supported by several job listings for inXile. One in particular mentioned helping make "new first-person shooter gameplay features" on a "next-generation action role-playing game," despite the contradiction.
Project Cobalt, action-RPG, FPS, next-generation, steampunk – these are a lot of ideas which may or may not fit into a single game. inXile CEO Brian Fargo has previously teased multiple RPG projects being worked on at the company. Still, even if it's multiple different projects, it seems like new ideas that inXile hasn't previously tried before.
One of the most exciting aspects of Microsoft's acquisition of so many different studios is seeing them work on not just unique projects, but larger projects. It's possible that inXile is ready to shirk the trappings of Wasteland's CRPG structure, or The Bard's Tale's dungeon crawling, in favor of larger efforts. Perhaps they'll be open-world RPGs like Fallout 3, or perhaps something more linear and cinematic like Final Fantasy. Regardless, it's an exciting time to be an inXile fan.
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