Sequel to Planescape: Torment In The Works
The successor to the hit PC RPG from 1999 will likely abandon the Planescape theme.
Chris Avellone, the lead designer of the original (and classic) Planescape: Torment RPG for the PC has reportedly given the green light for a sequel. However, Avellone won't be involved as he is handing over the developmental baton to former second-in-command Colin McComb and inXile, the developer behind the upcoming game Wasteland 2.
According to Eurogamer, Colin and Chris started talking about a successor over the summer. Originally they approached Wizards of the Coast (which owns all AD&D IPs) about resurrecting the franchise, but those talks didn't "yield any fruit." This led them to agree that taking the Planescape route wouldn't be the best avenue due to both mechanical issues and WotC's possible involvement.
"The Project: Eternity Kickstarter took them in a different direction than a direct successor," McComb told the site. "I told Chris that I would not work on a Torment successor without his approval. We talked about it for a bit, and he told me that he was entirely comfortable with me moving forward on a Torment game without him, and he gave me his explicit blessing to do it."
Currently McComb is putting a team together to work on the Torment sequel, but he claims that he won't use Kickstarter to fund the project as he did with Wasteland 2. He also said that he'd welcome any help Avellone could provide even though he's currently bogged down with Project: Eternity.
"Of all the games I've written, the one that I keep circling back to is Torment," McComb recently said in a lengthy "What's Next" blog. "And now that the bulk of my work on Wasteland 2 is largely complete (with some iteration work that still needs to be done), I can start thinking about Torment seriously."
In addition to the blog post, a company called Roxy Friday trademarked the name Torment just a few days ago. Brian Fargo of inXile is a part of this company, and previously used it to register other trademarks. As if confirming the purchase, he even ordered the sleuthing abilities of the Codex to figure out what he's up to.
"There are many other pieces to the pie on this project that I can't speak to yet which prevents me from much comment," he said. "I need to get the other elements in order so you can fully understand the detail, team, approach and reasoning first. There will lots of pleasant surprises but I had not planned on talking about it yet."
Planescape: Torment was originally developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Entertainment back on December 12, 1999. This single-player RPG for Windows PC currently has a Metascore of 91, earning perfect scores (100) and in the high 90s from the likes of Adrenaline Vault, Firing Squad, PC Gamer, IGN, GameSpot and more. It used a modified Infinity Engine which was also used for BioWare's original Baldur's Gate RPG for Windows PC.
Time to dig Planescape: Torment back out and play it again...

Edit: it looks like this will be a "spiritual successor", ie not in the Planescape setting, no Sigil and no D&D. I suppose it's better than another brain-dead hack'n'slash like Diablo, but still disappointing.
Fallout 1 and 2. Planescape was an amazing experience though.
I gather Project Eternity will not be bound to DnD ruleset, but other than that I have no info on this Planescape sequel not using DnD. Did you get this from this article, or do you have some more info on this? This would be a turn down.
I would say that they are on par with PS:T, but i wouldn't say that they were better.
In my personal opinion the throne for the best rpg's is kept by BG2/FO1+2/PS:T
Wizards of the Coast discontinued the Planescape franchise and declined to reestablish it. I think that means it can't be licensed or used. Also, the first line in the article says
... so that's cleared up. Maybe Wizards of the Coast will be persuaded eventually, if enough people want it bad enough.
I know that feeling, man. Had the same with Arcanum. By the way, you are right, if you could get into the game despite the dated interface, you'd meet one of the best stories in DnD universe.
Reminds me of an article I read somewhere not too long ago about which older, but excellent games would benefit the most from an HD remake.
Perhaps if/when the final game comes out I'll be proven wrong, but currently this just seems like a grab for attention.
Planescape mostly used 2nd edition rules, albeit modified in some areas due to the nature of the Nameless One and his companions. I don't recall if there were any CRPG's that fully used 1st edition rules - even the old SSI Goldbox games (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, etc) used a modified set of 1st Edition rules that became part of 2nd Edition (THAC0, for instance, didn't exist in true 1st Edition rules).