Brian Fargo to Retire After Wasteland 3 Releases

It’s a bit difficult to internalize but Brian Fargo’s career in gaming will have spanned 38 years in 2019, when Wasteland 3 is supposed to come out. Talking to Eurogamer, Fargo announced that the third installment of the post-apocalyptic RPG is going to be his swan song. From Interplay to InXile, Brian Fargo has been a recognized name in RPGs for literal decades and now he finally wants some well-deserved rest. Here are a few paragraphs from the man himself:

“Wasteland 2 and Torment both came out great,” he said. “The Mage’s Tale’s got a great buzz. The Bard’s Tale 4 looks spectacular. Wasteland 3 is building on Wasteland 2. It seems like a good time to drop the mic.

“I love this industry, but I’ve been at this since 1981. I’ve been at it with Ken and Roberta Williams [Sierra co-founders], Trip Hawkins [EA founder], the guys from Brøderbund – I look at my friends, they have a lot more spare time than I do. It’s a very intense business. It’s all encompassing. It seems like I should relax for a little bit.”

[…]

“I have some wonderfully competent people who are making it happen here,” he said. “One of the things I enjoy the most is finding and fostering talent. Certainly, externally everybody knows we gave Blizzard and BioWare their first shots. Internally I have my own guys who are just great. They’re very tuned into these products. I’m good at finding these people and putting the talent together. I’ve been training these people for years to make me obsolete. That’s what you have to do as a leader of a company.”

Fargo said he will leave inXile a profitable independent game developer with “money in the bank”.

“We don’t owe any external people any money. We don’t have any debt. The other shares are with some of the employees of the company. So as long as it continues doing good product it should be fine.”

So, what will Fargo do when he retires?

“I’ve always wanted to go Machu Picchu,” he said.

“I can’t even imagine being unplugged for a month. I’m on 24/7. I wake up in the morning to my emails and I go to sleep to my emails. There are things going on all the time and you want to give people information quickly, because me being slow could affect four people going slow. I feel that all the time. And often we have people around the globe I’m communicating with also.

“I quite enjoy it, but from a peace of mind it would be a dream to not have to wake up and be concerned about anything for a while. The games business is very intense. It’s the entertainment business mixed in with technology. It doesn’t get much more difficult.

“I started Interplay in 1983. I think I’m one of The Last of the Mohicans. Most, if not all of the old guard has gone on and relaxed. That’s a long time, right? I should get an award just for survival.”

This isn’t a farewell, Wasteland 3 hasn’t exactly gone gold, a lot may happen before the game’s 2019 release. Still, we wish Mr. Fargo all the best regardless.