Wasteland 2 Creators Trademark Van Buren and Meantime

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**Wyrmalla**

Article. So... Colour me confused, but I thought Obsidian already made Van Buren? Stranger still, don't Bethesda own the rights to the Fallout series? Perhaps they're just trademarking it for the sake of it, but I wonder if perhaps in future they'll be producing a Fallout game. Hmn, in any case this may be a hint at a sequel to Wasteland 2 (at least with the trademarking of Meantime as well).

Van Buren and Meantime trademarks filed by inXile

InXile Entertainment let slip last week that, with Wasteland 2 recently released and Torment: Tides of Numenera deep in development, it has begun preliminary work on another "passionately demanded" RPG. My guess (and hope) at the time was that a new Bard's Tale would soon be revealed to the world, but now it looks like the project might be something else entirely.

The sharp eyes at RPG Codex caught sight over the weekend of two recent trademark filings made by Roxy Friday, one for Meantime and one for Van Buren. Meantime, according to Wikipedia, was being developed in the late 80s as a follow-up to Wasteland before it was canceled; Van Buren is well-known as the code name for the originally-planned Fallout 3, before the wheels fell off at Interplay and the development team was laid off, effectively killing the project.

The applications were both filed by Roxy Friday LLC, a company previously linked to InXile Entertainment founder Brian Fargo, who also happened to be the head of Interplay during the development of Meantime and, presumably, at least some of Van Buren. Roxy Friday is also the company that filed for a Torment trademark in 2012, prior to the announcement of Torment: Tides of Numenera.

All of this could mean nothing, of course, but given the success of Wasteland 2, and the genetic connection between Wasteland and Fallout, it may well mean something, too. We've reached out to inXile for comment and will update if and when we receive a reply, but in the meantime, consider this: In 2012, Fargo wrote, "I commend the sleuthing abilities of the Codex" in regard to its discovery of the Torment trademark filing; earlier this week, in response to the Meantime discovery, he tweeted, "The codex investigative unit strikes again."

**Catyrpelius**

Hmmm, a new Fallout game that holds more towards the originals would be fantastic. Don't get me wrong I loved Fallout 3 and New Vegas but I didn't think they scratched the same itch as the original.

I'd love to see a new Bard's Tale.

**nomotog**

Why would you trademark a codename?

**Bromsy**

Van Buren has achieved somewhat legendary status just as a name amongst Fallout fans - so I can see using it to hype whatever this is.

I am assuming this will 'just' be Wasteland 3, in which case - I'm totally in.

**VorpalBunny74**

How did Wasteland 2 turn out? I heard good things to start with, and then it all tapered off.

**Psienesis**

It's like a more-difficult Fallout 2. I enjoyed it, but turn-based, isometric-view games just don't really do it for me anymore. The writing, however, was top-notch, the humor was everything you could want from a Fallout-like game, and the setting was rather convincing.

**Wyrmalla**

Of what I played (about half way) it seemed decent enough. Rather like one of the older isometric games in both playstyle and tone. The gameplay however didn't seem to have advanced much either. A good game though, especially if you're into that genre and something I think the company can build on (which they could be doing with this news). It was annoying that certain resolutions to quests can only be attained if you hand type in key words, which is something that is made mentioned of in tooltips, but you aren't actually aware of until you read a guide as though they may be obvious its an out there way of doing things (i.e. *spoiler* two warring tribes can make peace instead of you having to pick a side through you managing to collect a few objects-difficult enough- then knowing to say the word "both (ways)" or something just before they murder each other). I still prefer Fallout 2 though, even if by the end of that you're pretty much forced to be kitted out in Power Armour and carrying a Plasma Rifle. ...Though its not like you could get away with not having a fairly beefy crew in Wasteland 2 either.

There's a whole thread here on it though. By the read of things with this the company could be making either a prequel or sequel (the trademarked titles refer to the original name for the first game and the alias for Fallout 3 IIRC, though how many of the Van Buren team went to inXile? I thought all the big names became Obsidian, or at least all the guys who were actually doing anything big with the game). =P

**VorpalBunny74**

Thank you both

looks like it's on the 'To Get' pile