Dead Island publisher will distribute InXile’s crowdfunded Wasteland 2 to retail

Wasteland 2 developer InXile announced today that it is partnering with publisher Deep Silver to distribute the upcoming role-playing game Wasteland 2.

InXile is currently developing Wasteland 2, which it began following a successful crowdfunding campaign in April 2012. The studio asked fans to pledge $900,000 and ended up raising $2.93 million. The Kickstarter promised boxed copies of Wasteland 2, and Deep Silver will step in to provide the physical game to backers and stores.

“This is a perfect opportunity for inXile,” the company’s chief executive Brain Fargo said in a statement. “It allows us to continue to focus all of our energy and money into the creative aspects of the game while letting Deep Silver take our game outside of the pure digital space. This has the added bonus of allowing us to spend more of the Kickstarter funds on development while [we] continue to retain all ownership and control. I’ve known the people at Deep Silver for many years, and they have always been a first-rate organization to deal with.”

Deep Silver is best known for publishing the Dead Island series. It also recently purchased the Saints Row and Metro franchises from THQ. German media company Koch Media owns Deep Silver.

“The uber-successful crowdfunding of Wasteland 2 through Brian Fargo and his team has shown how much interest for an RPG with traditional values still exists on [the] consumers’ side aside from what large publishers think the market needs,” Koch Media chief executive Klemens Kundratitz said. “Deep Silver is very happy to support inXile Entertainment in bringing Wasteland 2 to the retail market.”

InXile plans to release Wasteland 2 later this year. Check out an early look at the game in the video below: