14 DAY TRIAL // Tim Schafer, the leader of the Double Fine studio, says that he is still interested in getting the rights to titles that he created while working at LucasArts, especially Grim Fandango and Full Throttle, because he might use their universes to deliver future titles.
He tells Kotaku that, “Since the day I left Lucas I’ve tried to get those rights back. Large companies don’t like to let go of things even if they’re not using them, which is frustrating, but we try, because I would not like them to be in other people’s hands and I would like to do something with them or at least have them available.”
LucasArts was acquired by Disney in a record-breaking transaction last year.
No new packages containing Grim Fandango or Full Throttle were launched for a number of years, and it’s unclear why the two companies are currently refusing to deal with Tim Schafer and sell them.
Disney might have long-term plans to revive them using other development teams, but the fan base is highly unlikely to be willing to play them as long as the original creators were not involved in any way.
The company is currently more focused on using its biggest intellectual property, Star Wars, creating new movies based on it and working with Electronic Arts, BioWare, Visceral and DICE to generate new video game experiences associated with them.
Schafer adds, “I would like to have them be available so people could buy them instead of pirate them if they wanted to. They don’t even have that option now. And I think if someone were going to do a nice version of it, it should be us. If someone was going to do a nice version of Grim, I think it should be us.”
Double Fine has managed to acquire the right to Schafer’s biggest critical hit, Psychonauts, which is presently delivering a solid revenue stream that the company is using to fund its current projects.
A similar deal was completed for Brutal Legend.
At the moment, the studio is putting the finishing touches on the second act of the classic adventure game Broken Age, which will be out this year.
At the same time, it is working on Massive Chalice, set to appear in 2015, and is creating prototypes for four titles that were part of the Amnesia Fortnight game jam, which might become full releases in the coming months.