inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game company located in Tustin, California. It is part of Xbox Game Studios. The company focuses on creating role-playing video games. inXile was started in 2002 by Brian Fargo, who co-founded Interplay. The studio made games like The Bard's Tale and Hunted: The Demon's Forge. They also created games for Flash and iOS, such as Fantastic Contraption, during their first ten years. In 2014, inXile released Wasteland 2 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Because the game was well-received, the studio raised a record US$4 million on Kickstarter to make Torment: Tides of Numenera, which is inspired by Interplay's Planescape: Torment. In 2018, Microsoft bought inXile, and it became part of Xbox Game Studios. At that time, the studio was working on Wasteland 3, which they released in 2020. Today, inXile is making Clockwork Revolution for Windows and Xbox Series X/S.

History

inXile Entertainment was started on October 26, 2002, by Brian Fargo in Newport Beach, California.

In an interview with Joystiq, inXile's President Matthew Findley explained the company's early history: "I worked with Brian Fargo at Interplay for many years, and we both left Interplay at the same time. We wanted to stay in video games, so starting a company seemed like a good idea. He worked at Interplay for 20 years, and I was there for 13. When we first began, we felt like we were in exile, so we made fake cards with a fake company name to have something to take to E3. Before we chose the name 'inXile,' Brian wrote 'Leader in exile' as his job title on the cards. People found the cards amusing, and we kept saying 'in exile' so often that we decided to create a new word. That is how we came up with 'inXile.'"

In May 2008, inXile announced the creation of SparkWorkz, an online business division focused on user-generated content. The division used the company's experience with the game Line Rider as a foundation for the venture. David Heeley, a former executive at Microsoft, was hired to lead the division.

In April 2012, inXile launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund Wasteland 2, the sequel to Interplay's Wasteland, with most of the original team involved. The campaign raised more than three times the amount they had hoped to collect, reaching $2,933,252. In March 2013, inXile returned to Kickstarter to fund Torment: Tides of Numenera. The campaign for Torment: Tides of Numenera set a record for the fastest Kickstarter campaign to reach $1 million, achieving this in seven hours and two minutes.

During the Kickstarter campaign for Wasteland 2, Brian Fargo created the Kicking it Forward program. Under this program, inXile Entertainment pledged to use 5% of profits after the game was released to support future Kickstarter projects.

In October 2015, inXile opened a new studio called inXile New Orleans in New Orleans. The Newport Beach office was moved to Tustin by January 2021.

In November 2018, Microsoft Studios announced it was in the final stages of acquiring inXile, as well as Obsidian Entertainment, another studio known for role-playing games. According to Brian Fargo, Microsoft's business development executive Noah Musler, who had previous ties to the studio, approached inXile in April 2018 with the idea of an acquisition. Fargo believed the acquisition would help the studio create games closer to high-budget AAA games, improving its ability to compete in the industry.

In June 2023, inXile introduced their new game Clockwork Revolution during the Xbox Games Showcase 2023.