14 DAY TRIAL // Tim Schafer, the leader of the development team at Double Fine, says that since he has managed to shift to a self-publishing business model for his company, the old catalogue of titles he has worked on has been making more money for the studio than ever before.
The game maker tells Kotaku that, “It might not be a blip on the radar for a company like Microsoft or EA or a huge company like that, but, for us, it allows us to make a thriving business off of creative ideas and inspiration-driven development. We made more money off of Psychonauts in the last two years than we ever did before – mostly because we didn’t have the publishing rights.”
Traditionally, the rights for a video game, including the actual release and the universe in which it is set, are linked to the publisher, the company that puts up the resources required to be created in the first place.
This means that studios like Double Fine might be appreciated by fans and critics but sometimes never profit from the impressive titles they can create.
The Tim Schafer-led studio has managed to acquire the rights to its own titles and is now reaping the rewards and putting the money it is getting to good use.
The developer adds, “Psychonauts has been out so long and developed such a cult following that every time there’s a Steam sale it’s generating a bunch of money for us. The scale of those sales makes the most sense for a company of our size.”
He says that much of the resource pool for Broken Age has been generated by sales of Psychonauts and other older titles, like Brutal Legend.
Schafer also acknowledges the impact that crowd funding through services like Kickstarter has had on his company and is thankful to all fans who have backed Double Fine projects.
The first chapter of the classic adventure title Broken Age was launched via the Steam digital distribution service earlier in the year, allowing players to experience two separate but intertwined stories with some surprising protagonists and some innovative puzzles.
The second act of the title is now in development, fully funded, and Double Fine expects to deliver it to players before the end of the year.
The studio is also working on another Kickstarter powered title called Massive Chalice, which should be launched at some point next year and has a very open development process.