The developer wants to see a Steam-like distribution system

Dec 19, 2012 01:41 GMT  ·  By

Tim Scahfer, the leader of the development team at Double Fine, believes that his company could deliver its video game on home consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo as long as the companies were willing to make their platforms more open and friendly.

Speaking to Polygon, the developer says, “We’d still like to be active in that space, we care about consoles, but unless they open things up a lot more like what we have on Steam – if they opened things up more it would be a more friendly place from our perspective.”

At the moment, Double Fine is working on at least a video game that will target home consoles, The Cave, and more might arrive in the future.

Schafer adds, “We’ve talked to them about this stuff, and you know, they hear us. They’re big companies and they can’t make changes overnight, but I think they’re taking all of that stuff into consideration. We’ll have to see what happens.”

The first Double Fine games to make money for the developer were PC ports and that means that the company is more willing to work on a platform it knows, where distribution is easily handled by Steam.

Neither Sony nor Microsoft has announced clear plans for the next generation of gaming consoles, but some rumors suggest that they might integrate a new digital distribution system, which will make it easier for studios like Double Fine to launch their titles.

At the moment, Schafer is working with Ron Gilbert on The Cave, which will be out on the PC, home consoles and the Nintendo Wii U in January.

The company is also offering fans a chance to play the prototypes that resulted from Amnesia Fortnight.

Double Fine is also working on its classic adventure game, which is supposed to arrive in the second half of 2013, after securing funding via Kickstarter.