Double Fine "Made More on Psychonauts This Year" Than Ever

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

Double Fine "Made More on Psychonauts This Year" Than Ever

Double Fine head Tim Schafer says publishers "will cut you loose and let you die" if developers don't meet sales expectations.

Psychonauts may not have flown off shelves when it came out in 2005, but in the seven years since, it's gained cult status from positive word of mouth and releases on various downloadable platforms. After not performing well as a PS2, PC, and Xbox retail title, Psychonauts went on to be released on Steam (for PC and Mac), Xbox 360's Xbox Originals, and most recently gained the publishing rights [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119251-Psychonauts-Comes-to-PSN] to its first game, which helped the studio realize how much money it was missing out on by not owning its games. In an interview with Polygon, studio head Tim Schafer stated, "We made more on Psychonauts this year than we ever have before."

Schafer didn't accompany that statement with any sales figures, so it's unclear if he means Double Fine made more from Psychonauts in 2012 than any previous single year, or all of the years it's been on the market combined. Either way, it's an impressive feat for the developer, which just a few years ago was in danger when its follow-up to Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, was dropped by Activision. Schafer elaborated on some of the problems that come from working with major publishers on big-budget retail titles in the interview. "A publisher is a business. If you're making money they'll be in business with you, and if you're not important to their bottom line, they will cut you loose and let you die... That's what businesses should do. They're not here for emotions; they're here to make money."

Since the kerfuffle over Brutal Legend (which also included a legal battle with Activision [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97178-Brutal-Legend-Suffered-from-Lawsuits] and EA canceling its planned sequel), Double Fine has shifted directions, having multiple teams working on smaller games. "It's weird to say, but I'm glad it didn't work out that way... what was really inspiring to me, was what saved us, and why we didn't go out of business after Brutal Legend, was that not me but the team had a lot of great ideas. And we made our salaries off of those great ideas for the next two years. And so that creativity saved the day."

By getting back the publishing rights to Psychonauts, which "instantly started making money" for the studio, "we realized how much money we're losing out on, by not controlling our own destiny." Because of this, Double Fine is finding new ways to get funding while retaining the rights to its creative works, like investors and the immensely successful Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115808-Tim-Schafer-Thought-Hed-Get-Two-Grand-Not-2-Million] from earlier this year.

In an era where it seems like veteran studios are being shut down left and right, it's heartwarming to see a developer like Double Fine find its way despite things not going quite as intended. Now that it has found a publishing model that appears to work, maybe Double Fine can get around to making that Psychonauts sequel [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119606-Psychonauts-Dev-Would-Love-to-Revisit-the-Franchise].

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/features/2012/12/13/3726930/double-fine-double-feature-tim-schafer-dracogen-kickstarter]

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[Rainboq]

I'm happy for Tim, Double Fine makes amazing games and Psychonauts is an amazing game with some pretty bad controls, hopefully the sequel will be much better.

 

[MrMan999]

Good to hear. Psychonauts is one of those few games that deserve the acclaim that it gets.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I can see video games going the way of music, with creators increasingly using direct sales or online distribution and the major publishers finding themselves pushed into a corner.

Which would be interesting to see happen. We already know that some developers are perfectly capable of operating without or as their own publisher (Valve, Bethesda), it would be very interesting to see if other, smaller companies can build themselves up without the interference of the the big ones.

 

[PunkRex]

Now that it has found a publishing model that appears to work, maybe Double Fine can get around to making that Psychonauts sequel.

Universe, I have never prayed to you before.
I have no tongue for it.
No one, not even you, will remember if these were good games or bad,
Why we played or why we rage quit because that meat circus level was broke as all F*CK!!!
No, all that matters is that they stood against many.
That's what's important.
Variety pleases you, Universe, so grant me one request -
Grant me a sequel!
And if you do not listen, then the Hell with you!

 

[Falseprophet]

Universe, I have never prayed to you before.
I have no tongue for it.
No one, not even you, will remember if these were good games or bad,
Why we played or why we rage quit because that meat circus level was broke as all F*CK!!!
No, all that matters is that they stood against many.
That's what's important.
Variety pleases you, Universe, so grant me one request -
Grant me a sequel!
And if you do not listen, then the Hell with you!

You have solved the Riddle of Sequel!

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

I'm really happy for Tim and Double Fine, it's about time they started cashing in on Psychonauts because they totally deserve it.

To games as an art form! *raises glass*

 

[Crunchy English]

Shamus Young's twitter just told me this was a first step in publisher's losing power. He speaks of it like a utopia. Now, I don't like bottom-line driven businessmen getting in the way of creative freedom or churning out uninspired sequels and knockoffs either, but publishers exist for a reason and without their money a lot less games would get made.

While certainly better for developers in the long run, is there any downside to an industry without dedicated publishers?

 

[TheComfyChair]

Shamus Young's twitter just told me this was a first step in publisher's losing power. He speaks of it like a utopia. Now, I don't like bottom-line driven businessmen getting in the way of creative freedom or churning out uninspired sequels and knockoffs either, but publishers exist for a reason and without their money a lot less games would get made.

While certainly better for developers in the long run, is there any downside to an industry without dedicated publishers?

Not really, as publishers waste a lot of money. Independent investors and kickstarters for developers is very likely a better situation for creative games. But regardless, we'll soon see what's best. Pay attention to PC versus console over the next 5 years. One of them is publisher dependant, one of them isn't anywhere near as much any more. So we'll soon see what effect publishers have

 

[Trishbot]

I'm happy to see the business model changing. I think we can all agree that games have progressively begun losing their originality and instead defaulted to publisher's "game development by numbers" rules of game creation (online multiplayer, online passes, cutting content out to release as DLC later, annual sequels of diminishing quality and substance, etc.)

Many developers have been vocal about how publishers want them to add stuff just to check it off their list of blurbs to put on the back of the box, usually to the detriment of the core game itself.

Freedom from that narrow-minded view of game development can only be a good thing, though in an ideal world we'd have publishers smart enough to know that these people making games know what they're doing most of the time.

It reminds me of how comic book CEOs and editors often think they know how to tell a better story than the professional writers they hired and give editorial mandates to them that screw up their hard work, upset fans, and make a mess of things... and they KEEP doing that, year after year, never learning to step back and just let their employees do the damn job they were hired to do.

In other news... Psychonauts 2? Yes please!

 

[Scars Unseen]

I'm happy to see the business model changing. I think we can all agree that games have progressively begun losing their originality and instead defaulted to publisher's "game development by numbers" rules of game creation (online multiplayer, online passes, cutting content out to release as DLC later, annual sequels of diminishing quality and substance, etc.)

Many developers have been vocal about how publishers want them to add stuff just to check it off their list of blurbs to put on the back of the box, usually to the detriment of the core game itself.

Freedom from that narrow-minded view of game development can only be a good thing, though in an ideal world we'd have publishers smart enough to know that these people making games know what they're doing most of the time.

It reminds me of how comic book CEOs and editors often think they know how to tell a better story than the professional writers they hired and give editorial mandates to them that screw up their hard work, upset fans, and make a mess of things... and they KEEP doing that, year after year, never learning to step back and just let their employees do the damn job they were hired to do.

In other news... Psychonauts 2? Yes please!

On the contrary, the current trend is the inevitable result of the money men learning what does and does not reliably make money in the video games industry. The key word there is "reliably." Whether a game is good or not does not have a direct relationship with whether it is profitable or not. Just look at Psychonauts. Critical success, financial failure(until recently, apparently... Steam had something to do with that no doubt). Now to be certain, this situation doesn't make me happy, but it's hard to argue that the companies that have found a reliable pattern of crappy sequels aren't making money.

Money men are the bane of art. Unfortunately, art is expensive(especially modern multidisciplinary art forms like movies and video games). Eventually we will reach a point where -like in the music industry- cheap tools can produce near industry standard levels of quality. We aren't quite there yet, and until we are, most producers will have to choose between freedom and outside funding. This is why I support crowdsourcing, as it manages to help pave a middle ground for proven artists.

 

[The White Hunter]

I can see video games going the way of music, with creators increasingly using direct sales or online distribution and the major publishers finding themselves pushed into a corner.

That makes Mr. Schafer the Reznor of the games industry...


I am incredibly okay with this!

Need to plasy more psychonauts, need a controller my pc recognises first!

 

[fix-the-spade]

Need to plasy more psychonauts, need a controller my pc recognises first!

Wired 360 controller?

 

[shrekfan246]

Well, I bought Psychonauts this year, so I suppose I contributed a little bit to that, at least. Have yet to play most of it, though, since I've got so many other games to try working through.

 

[Beryl77]

I'm glad that when I bought Psychonauts last year, the money went to the creators of the game. Feels much better than knowing that the publisher gets most of the money and I hope that everything works out for Double Fine, it's a great studio that deserves to do well.

 

[The White Hunter]

Need to plasy more psychonauts, need a controller my pc recognises first!

Wired 360 controller?

You see I don't have a 360 so all I got knocking abotu are dualshocks, a gcn controller, a few dreamcast pads, etc. =p

Nah, I literally just oredered a wired 360 pad and Dark Souls PTD 20 minutes ago, I'm currently wondering why crysis doesn't have a fucking shortcut (no mashing the 4 key 4 times does not count) for the cloak but it has a dedicated night vision but that's by default half a mile across the keyboard from the rest of my hand.

Edit: Aware of the suit shortcuts thing that makes crouch cloak and shit. But what if i want to crouch and not clock, hmm!?

Also, I'm aware my indignation at this is a good 5 years late.

Edit 2: Grumble grumble grumble. Forget it.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

As someone who's never played Psychonauts before and picked it up in the last Steam sale.

I contributed to a thing!

 

[Michael Collett]

Need to plasy more psychonauts, need a controller my pc recognises first!

Wired 360 controller?

You see I don't have a 360 so all I got knocking abotu are dualshocks, a gcn controller, a few dreamcast pads, etc. =p

Nah, I literally just oredered a wired 360 pad and Dark Souls PTD 20 minutes ago, I'm currently wondering why crysis doesn't have a fucking shortcut (no mashing the 4 key 4 times does not count) for the cloak but it has a dedicated night vision but that's by default half a mile across the keyboard from the rest of my hand.

I use my Dualshocks3 on my PC. Google Motion In Joys DS3 tool. It lets you use a wired DS3 control as an XBOX360. Games will still tell you to press the xbox buttons, but if you're familiar with an xbox control you can figure it out.