inXile plans to leak The Bard's Tale

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 October, 2004

Brian Fargo: "we feel some sort of leak that sounds similar to what [Rockstar, Microsoft, etc.] have experienced may be the next logical step in our launch plans."

inXile Entertainment, developer of quirky PS2 and Xbox RPG The Bard's Tale, has responded to the recent spate of leaks that's afflicted high profile games - including the likes of Pro Evolution Soccer 4, Half-Life 2, Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - by considering "some form of leak of The Bard's Tale [..] as a strategic plan to follow a growing trend among Triple A games."

inXile CEO and founder Brian Fargo explains. "The Bard's Tale is a highly original game in the same category as a Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 so we feel some sort of leak that sounds similar to what they have experienced may be the next logical step in our launch plans," he revealed on Friday. "Of course we would immediately condemn the leak and make every effort to stop it if we proceed with it."

Fortunately for Fargo and co., the plan hasn't backfired quite yet; as of this morning The Bard's Tale has yet to appear on any of the websites and newsgroups that hosted the abovementioned pirated games, despite the fact it's out in the US, um, today.

Doubtless Rockstar, Vivendi, Microsoft et al won't find it all that amusing though. Indeed, both Microsoft and Rockstar have reacted angrily over the past couple of weeks to the efforts of pirates and appealed publicly for help in tracking down the pirates responsible, even encouraging gamers to shop their mates to the authorities in the hope of picking up leads.

The Bard's Tale is due out in the US on October 26th (ye gads! It be now!) and should be out over here sometime next year, although it's difficult to say from where; although Vivendi distributes the game in the States, it had been due out over here from Acclaim before the British publisher went under at the start of September. Whatever happens though, we'll let you know. Now, if you'll excuse us, what with all this talk of leaks...

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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