Wasteland 2 was one of the vital first mega-successes of the Kickstarter boom, and a brand new announcement today puts the title one step towards release. This morning, inXile announced that it has entered right into a distribution agreement with Saints Row IV publisher Deep Silver.

The arrangement is identical to EA’s now defunct Partner program. Deep Silver will only be handling retail distribution, Kickstarter reward fulfillment, and assistance with quality assurance testing for localized international releases. Creative control remains with inXile. 

According to inXile, this enables the developer to concentrate on their core competencies (making the sport) while offloading distribution and fulfillment to a different entity that handles these elements as portion of its core business.

Our Take
This is a superb move by both inXile and Deep Silver. Such a arrangement allows the developer to target making the sport without inefficient and expensive distribution. Deep Silver can be capable of leverage its extensive international profile and expertise on a contractual basis, which helps defray overhead costs of running the business. 

Most importantly, this arrangement doesn’t impact the creative product whatsoever. This is not a normal publishing agreement. It is a contractual arrangement for a particular scope of services.