No matter what happens, Tim Schafer is doing everything he can to keep his studio alive.
Tim Schafer, the head of Double Fine Productions, recently explained how the studio managed to avoid closure after significant layoffs at Xbox. He stated that no one but him can bring Double Fine down. In an interview with Bloomberg, Schafer detailed his efforts to secure the studio’s intellectual property rights and funding. This enabled Double Fine to regain its independence. Microsoft acquired Double Fine in 2019. Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox at the time, was confident that the studio’s games would be hits on Xbox Game Pass. However, after Spencer retired in February, Schafer realized that Asha Sharma had different ideas, especially since Keeper and Kiln had not performed well financially.
Since regaining its independence, Double Fine has cut 23 positions, reducing the team’s headcount to just under 70. The studio is presenting new game concepts to investors, a process that Schafer described as interesting now that they have re-emerged in the public eye after seven years. Regarding their approach to game development as an independent studio, Schafer stated that they have never intentionally set out to create a losing venture. Double Fine recently announced the fifth Amnesia Fortnight event, in which small teams develop game prototypes. The event will also feature a Kickstarter campaign and the premiere of an accompanying documentary produced by 2 Player Productions.
“You’re like, ‘Wait a second. We’re not going out like this.’ Some people said, ‘I’m checking out. This is one too many battles for me.’ But for the rest of us, it’s a creative awakening. Our mission was to provide great games on Game Pass, and then their mission changed. I can’t imagine any amount of profitability, unless we had a Minecraft-level hit that year, would’ve saved us. No one puts Double Fine out of business except me. Asha’s not going to shoot my dog. I’m going to shoot it. But I’m not going to shoot it because it’s going to do well. Many people want to walk the dog. We grew under Microsoft but returned to our previous, sustainable size as an independent studio.
The whole landscape has changed so much. After all these years, the fact that I still don’t understand much about the business just shows how hard it is to know everything. That’s why I’m focused on keeping my team alive. That’s why we do these creative things all the time. If we stopped doing these wacky, creative things, we’d eventually be like, “Who cares?” These games aren’t lucrative enough to justify how hard they are to make. They also have to be really fun and rewarding to make. People would say, “Oh, Keeper looks like this art house thing that no one expects to be a hit.” But to me, it’s the kind of game someone who doesn’t play games would love. I really think Keeper has mass-market appeal. If we could just reach those people, they could catch Lighthouse Fever.
We’ve been through a lot this year. Much of it has been very draining. There’s been inner conflict, threats of extermination, long negotiations, and strenuous trade-offs with lawyers. There’s been tons of demoralizing stuff. This is the good fight. Can we come up with a great game idea that we can actually make within the right budget and get to this publisher who’s interested in these types of games? This kind of problem-solving is soul-enriching. Using creativity to solve problems is what gets us up in the morning. It’s hard, scary, and stressful, but at least it’s putting some fire back into the team’s bellies and mine,” Schafer said.
Hopefully, they’ll have something that will make them successful. For example, a few days ago we reported that Keeper had been released for the PlayStation 5.
Source: Gamesindustry, Bloomberg
