Developer inXile Entertainment has announced the release date for Wasteland 3. The Wasteland franchise is widely known as inspiration for some of gaming's most popular post-apocalyptic series. While the games Wasteland has inspired have continued to see steady releases, it's taken much longer for Wasteland 3 to be completed after requiring Fig crowdfunding to get off the ground. However, it seems like the long wait is nearly over as the games release is just around the corner.
Wasteland is a nearly 32-year-old franchise. Although the wait between Wasteland 2 and Wasteland 3 will be only six years, the original released all the way back in 1988. All three games are isometric RPGs, but the series is more known for its setting than its gameplay. The original Wasteland is a foundational post-apocalyptic game. For example, the setting of the original Wasteland is shared by one of the games it inspired, Fallout: New Vegas.
The release date for Wasteland 3 was announced alongside the '1987' trailer at Microsoft's X019 Xbox global celebration conference, and gamers can now mark May 19, 2020 on their calendars. The trailer for the title shows off the new post-apocalyptic setting of Colorado. The world is in the midst of a rebuild as new statues are being built and organizations seem to be coming back. As for gameplay, there will be both single-player and co-op. Developer inXile says that "story-driven co-op" will be a major part of the game. Additionally, the developer places strong emphasis on strategic combat. So it doesn't seem likely players will make it far going in guns blazing.
Wasteland 3 will premiere on Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One and PC. This comes as yet another major addition to the online service. At X019, Microsoft announced that over 40 new games will be coming by 2020. More and more games have begun to premiere on the service in recent months, including Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds. Of course, Obsidian is the developer of Fallout: New Vegas.
It's certainly rare to see a franchise continue to make new games 30 years since its inception. There are really only a handful of such franchises that continue to do so, Warcraft, Diablo, Wolfenstein, Doom, and The Elder Scrolls to name a few. Many franchises either die out or come to a natural end, but it's nice to see these historical series continue to make new games. That being said, the length between Wasteland and Wasteland 3 is an incredibly large gap. But now, inXile has finally revealed that the game will be in players hands next May.
Wasteland 3 will be available for PS4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS on May 19th, 2020.