Who’s willing to bet we’ll see a new Double Fine game soon?
Jez Corden wrote an article for Windows Central running down what games and hardware Microsoft could show us in next week’s Xbox Games Showcase. While most of it represents the things that Jez expects or hopes to see, he has an actual rumor in the middle of it.
In his words:
What of Psychonauts studio, Double Fine? Tim Schafer’s beloved outfit has been relatively quiet in recent years, but I’ve heard some rumblings that they might be ready to debut their next title soon. Could it be at the Xbox Showcase as well? My guess says “yes.”
Double Fine was founded all the way in 2000, when Tim Schafer left LucasArts for greener pastures. In the past two decades, the studio has made games of varying scale and popularity, but they have generally been well regarded as a true top tier studio, in terms of the quality of their titles, as well as their willingness to experiment.
Unfortunately, they also have a different kind of reputation that’s haunted them throughout their existence. 2005’s Psychonauts and 2009’s Brütal Legend are both known for being critical darlings and commercial flops, and that’s become the kind of company that they are known for.
While the company has made other popular games like Costume Quest, Broken Age, and Massive Chalice, they may be best known for remasters of Tim’s earlier LucasArts games, Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle. They also published a small group of third party games, including GNOG and Gang Beasts.
And then, in 2019, they were bought out by Microsoft, in between that conglomerate’s massive acquisitions of Zenimax Studios and Activision Blizzard King. While there was a lot of hope for what Double Fine could do under Microsoft Gaming, so far they’ve released roguelike Rad and the highly anticipated 3D platformer Psychonauts 2.
While Schafer is generally known to take his time with Double Fine’s projects, it’s not unreasonable to expect that if they’re not ready to release their next game yet, they may be ready to show it to us. Psychonauts 2 released in 2021, but this new project likely started development after their Microsoft acquisition.
Unfortunately, we may have to throw some water at your wildest dreams. In 2023, Schafer said they weren’t working on a Psychonauts 3. Subsequently, last year, Double Fine’s community manager Harper Jay also made it clear they weren’t working on a Brutal Legend 2.
Knowing what we know about Double Fine, it’s more likely that Schafer wanted to try his hand at another original game instead of making a sequel. This time, however, he’s working under a company that’s published games of varying scale and expectations as Avowed, Pentiment, Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga and South of Midnight.
We believe that Microsoft Gaming would protect Schafer’s ability to make games the way he wants. At the same time, Schafer may feel he has more opportunities to experiment and work with bigger budgets under Microsoft. That combination will make Double Fine’s next project very interesting to watch.
