Wasteland 2 developer inXile is expanding this year, as studio chief Brian Fargo and Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal announced this week that it will open a sister studio in New Orleans. This will be the first major expansion for the studio, which has operated out of Newport Beach for more than a decade.
New Orleans is an especially intriguing choice because it’s not in a region generally recognized as being a hotbed of game development — something Louisiana hopes to change by offering incentives to inXile and other high-tech companies (including Chicago-based High Voltage, which also expanded to New Orleans this year.)
“With each new digital media investment, New Orleans is becoming a brighter beacon in the tech sector,” stated Jindal in a press release announcing the deal. “Our strong business climate and highly skilled workforce are attracting innovative companies like inXile to our state, along with the great new jobs they’re creating.”
Fargo told a Nola.com reporter that inXile had no plans to expand to Louisiana — until state officials came out to visit him earlier this year and pitch him on Louisiana’s tax incentive program for high-tech industry.
The company plans to take advantage of those incentives as it looks to hire 50 developers (with an average annual pay of $75K) over the next five years.
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2015