Also more information other things that will be improved/upgraded/changed/added.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-03-27-channeling-xcom-porting-wasteland-2-to-ps4-and-xbox-one

I think this is so incredible. I never would have expected them to do this much with this game.

I so will play this game again, once this is out!

I just started playing W2 again after shelving it for many months waiting for patches. I just cleared the rail thieves at the Rail Nomads camp, and am having a BLAST. I like the graphics, actually, and I REALLY like how the controls and 360-degree aspect work (I actually have to LOOK, it's not just all hand-fed to me.) Now I want to finish it before they upgrade it so I can see it all how it was originally and then probably playthrough again eventually with the upgrade. Cool stuff! Thanks for the heads-up!

Yuck. I know this is not a popular opinion, but I'm really disappointed that the team is spending so much time, money, and attention to make this game into a console port, instead of adding additional content to the game like expansion packs, or even a graphical and UI overhaul for PC players, including much needed performance optimizations. I understand the market is heavily console oriented, however I loved that InExile was focusing on the PC. I really want some company to be PC selfish and create the best possible experience for PC gaming, ignoring all else (Linux and Mac should be included of course.)

I just don't see these types of RPGs as really turning the heads of too many Call of Duty gamers. Maybe it will be successful for them, and I hope it is because I want this company to succeed. Just personally, and selfishly, I would prefer they focus on making Torment: Tides of Numenara the best possible game it could be, for PC.

Anyway, all that aside, I guess I can look it positively as well. These changes will migrate to the PC, so that the game can be played with a controller (god knows why anyone would prefer to play this type of game with a controller and not a mouse and keyboard, but there are those people out there) and we will get a graphical update just like the consoles. And the consoles are x86 systems, so since the architecture is shared between PC and consoles, hopefully they won't have to waste too many resources with the port. Also, in the pros category should be that at least they are basing their design decisions on the new XCom game, which yes was dumbed down significantly from the original XCom franchise, was a very playable and enjoyable game on both console and PC.

The cynic in me still cringes that they'll choose to dumb down the gameplay mechanics for the console crowd. Lets hope any such changes are optional.

You understand that the migration to Unity 5 will come for PC users with the next patch, right?
Do you know of many games who have seen an engine upgrade *for free*? Okay, looks like you know it (shame on me for starting my reply before fully reading your post).
So where’s the problem? They won’t, at least if you trust their official announcements. And if you don’t trust inXile, maybe you shouldn’t buy their games in the first place ;)

Big picture man. Them porting this to more platforms is exactly what will create more content, because this way they'll make some money.

And since Torment is done by another team inside this company, I'm pretty sure they ARE doing the best they can, porting this to consoles or not.

It's exciting that they are creating so much stuff for Wasteland 2 AND are even giving this out for free. Many other companies don't. Even those that deliver less changes.

I can only be cheered up by this.

The company is only 30 some people and this team is taking up twelve of those spots. Also, Wasteland 2 already was incredibly successful financially, one of the most successful PC games of last year. So my points are valid concerns. It remains to be seen if the consoles will really make that much of a difference to them financially. Luckily, as I mentioned in my post, the architecture is shared between both consoles and PCs so porting shouldn't be too much trouble, and since PC sales were good enough to pay for the recoding of the game to the new engine (and Unity 4.5 to 5 is not a simple migration, in fact other devs have spoken about it being a very painful process for their games), throwing them on the new consoles isn't a daft idea. I don't t see there being much of a market for this style of game on the consoles. History has shown us that console gamers don't tend to flock towards this type of RPG. They want games like Mass Effect, or even Skyrim. I can't even think of a single RPG that is like Wasteland two that made it to console. Even the closest console game would be Firaxis's Xcom, which while done brialliantly was dumbed down for the console market compared to the original game, and was not very successful either, with PC sales at something like 5:1 of the console sales. It only sold a little over 100,000 copies on both consoles combined.

Just saying I would have spent the resources elsewise to continue the push to making the best games possible on PC, by doing things like expanded content, or just not spreading my already tiny team so thinly. I trusted Bioware since they made their first games. I even trusted Bioware after they were bought out by EA. I even trusted Bioware after the complete disgrace that was Dragon Age 2. My cynical nature about PC game developers exists simply because I've been such a passionate PC gamer for more than 25 years. Asides from just paying money for my hobby, I've paid attention as well.

[Edit: I went looking for sources for my claims about XCom's sales, and all I found was conflicting information. AFter the game was released, I read something that made the 5:1 claim on PC vs Console sales, however, the latest info I can find is PC leading by a tad, then Xbox and PS3 at slightly lower percentages, but certainly not that far off, so it seemed like the game increased significantly in popularity after slow initial sales on consoles. Which is good, because Firaxis is a great studio and they did a heck of job with that game).

InXile is 37 permanent staff. First of, that tells me that it's possible that most of them are working on Torment. It's also wrong to believe that a game is automatically getting better/faster finished, if just more people work on it. John Romero thought like this during his Ion Storm days. I have no idea how they are working inside inXile, but it is entirely possible that they don't really need these 12 people on Torment.

The "already financially successful" part makes me laugh a little bit, because that's not how capitalism works, that companies say at some point "okay now we have made enough money and therefore just stop". :D Of course a company would always try to look for new opportunities to make even more money. In case of inXile they probably even have to, because they got only 3 Million on KS, while they spent 6 on the game, the last 3 Million were their own money. That means, that the first 3 Million they earn, weren't even anywhere near having actual profit.
If they intend to keep going like this, they need to earn as much money as they possibly can. I'm pretty sure that the 4 Million they got from KS for Torment will never suffice to get this game done. They probably need some of that hard Wasteland 2 cash, to finish that game the way they want. The expectations of players all over the world are way too high for that title. Especially now that Pillars of Eternity came out and turned out to be such a damn fine game.

Since inXile has spent much money on supporting the already released Wasteland 2 (let's face it, these 6 huge patches represent the best patch support any game of this type has ever received from its own developer) I'm good with all of it, because for me as a player, it only means that I'm getting a highly polished game (if over time), which is next to unprecedented.

[1] InXile is 37 permanent staff. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-03-27-channeling-xcom-porting-wasteland-2-to-ps4-and-xbox-one

Have played through the game 3 times until patch 3 or 4, but not played it for a long time now. That screenshot in the article looks fantastic! I'll probably play through the game again at some point, hopefully now with fewer bugs and spelling errors, and improvements to "impossible" shots hitting and clear shots being blocked for some odd reason.

Overall I really liked the game, and it was my first experience with turn-based combat. Some things felt a little off at times, but I applaud their efforts at a game that would probably not be released in this day and age without crowdfunding of one sort or another. Wouldn't have played through it 3 times already if I didn't like it :)

It's also wonderful that it works so well on Linux.

What will be the system requirements of the game after the engine update ?

I'm doing my first play through and am going to complete it before I play the upgraded version. It's definitely worth multiple playthroughs (there are already things that I'm wanting to see how they play out differently, and I'm not out of Arizona yet!) so I look forward to having the comparison between the two. I will probably even do a separate install of the new version and not uninstall the old so that I can play between the two versions if I want, and so I can re-create my same party but do it more refined (even with how much I concentrated on my skill choices, I will be able to do it even better on a 2nd play) but not lose the original party that I'm going to complete the game with, which I'm quite attached to and don't want to lose/delete/overwrite.

Take in consideration that the gameplay will be very different between the original and the GOTY version.
They are not only upgrading the engine but adding quirks (feats?) and other news characteristic (as be able to select which part of the body attack).

By example, in the current version there don't exist the perfect armor, you can have 10 of armor and be immortal to normal weapons,but you will be mortally wound with the energy weapons. With the GOTY, the enemy (or you) could degrade the armor in battle making the normal weapons more efficient but at same time downgrading the efficiency of the energy weapons.

Yep! Pretty exciting! This is why I will probably do a separate install, so I can play both versions if I want to. I think anyone who hasn't played W2 yet should play the current version and then play the upgraded version after they finish the original. It's worth at least two playthroughs if not more and I'm quite certain it will add to the overall experience to have experienced both.

That's a good question.

A very good question!

:)

It is troublesome enough that I can barely run Wasteland 2 on my nearly 9 year old computer, a graphical engine upgrade will cut performance down considerably. Oh well, been meaning to acquire a new computer with beefier hardware anyway.

Actually according to developers performances might get better due to the engine upgrade.
You’ll have to trust me on this one, I don’t feel like rummaging through the inXile forums to find out in which post I read this.

EDIT: This post seems to imply GotY edition will *not* be more demanding than the "vanilla" version:
https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?p=151076#p151076

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WL2 "vanilla" and WL2 "GotY edition" will be two distinct games, so you don’t have to worry about losing your beloved rangers ;)
You’ll be able to install both game alongside each other.