{"id":2128761,"date":"2026-09-05T00:03:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2128761"},"modified":"2026-09-05T00:03:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:03:03","slug":"no-one-puts-double-fine-out-of-business-except-for-me-tim-schafer-explains-how-he-kept-double-fine-afloat-after-leaving-xbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2128761","title":{"rendered":"‘No One Puts Double Fine Out of Business Except for Me’ \u2014 Tim Schafer Explains How He Kept Double Fine Afloat After Leaving Xbox"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tim Schafer, game designer and founder of Psychonauts developer Double Fine, gave a strong response after Xbox divested the studio as part of its massive restructuring efforts this summer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Speaking with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier in a September 2026 interview<\/a>, Schafer admitted that he knew something was up before Xbox\u2019s divestment was officially announced \u2014 but he wasn\u2019t about to go down without a fight.<\/p>\n

“You\u2019re like, ‘Wait a second, we\u2019re not going out like this,'” Schafer explained. “Some people said, ‘I\u2019m checking out, this is one too many battles for me.\u2019 But for the rest of us, it\u2019s like a creative awakening.”<\/p>\n

“No one puts Double Fine out of business except for me,” he continued. “Asha\u2019s not going to shoot my dog. I\u2019m going to shoot it. But I\u2019m not going to shoot it, because it\u2019s going to do great. A lot of people want to walk the dog.”<\/p>\n

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Thankfully, Double Fine was able to retain its intellectual property<\/a> and become fully independent, though it did have to lay off a quarter of its staff<\/u><\/a> as a result of this change. That isn\u2019t stopping it from making more games, though, as the developer recently published a Kickstarter for its next project \u2014 with the addendum that if it raises $100 million, they\u2019ll also make Brutal Legend 2.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve been through a lot this year,” Schafer told Schreier. “A lot of it is very soul-sucking stuff. Inner conflict, threats of extermination, long negotiations, strenuous hard tradeoffs with lawyers. Tons of demoralizing stuff.”<\/p>\n

And yet, in spite of these challenges, Schafer says he\u2019s been able to find a creative spark that has invigorated both himself and the remaining team at Double Fine.<\/p>\n

“This is the good fight. Can we think of a great idea for a game that we can actually do for the right budget, that can get to this publisher who\u2019s 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. So it is hard, and it is scary and it is stressful, but it\u2019s at least putting some fire back into the bellies of the team and me,” he said.<\/p>\n

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Xbox has undergone a slew of major changes as CEO Asha Sharma works to make the company profitable again. Shedding Double Fine was part of that change, as well as massive layoffs that affected roughly 3,200 employees.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sharma has been fairly transparent with Xbox\u2019s financial state and future plans, most recently telling the BBC that the brand\u2019s next generation console, Project Helix, will include a \u201cfamily of devices,\u201d<\/a> though she notably declined to comment if it\u2019ll have a disc drive or not.<\/a><\/p>\n

In other Double Fine news, the developer shadow dropped Keeper<\/a>, a formerly Xbox-exclusive title, on PlayStation 5 today now that it’s no longer tied to the company. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Virginia (she\/her) is IGN\u2019s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she\u2019s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at <\/em>@TheeMissGlaze<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n

Get IGN’s Biggest Stories FIRST. Set Us as Your Source.<\/strong>\"Google\"Add Source<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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<\/span><\/div>\n

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Tim Schafer, game designer and founder of Psychonauts developer Double Fine, gave a strong response after Xbox divested the studio as part of its massive restructuring efforts this summer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Speaking with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier in a September 2026 interview<\/a>, Schafer admitted that he knew something was up before Xbox\u2019s divestment was officially announced \u2014 but he wasn\u2019t about to go down without a fight.<\/p>\n

“You\u2019re like, ‘Wait a second, we\u2019re not going out like this,'” Schafer explained. “Some people said, ‘I\u2019m checking out, this is one too many battles for me.\u2019 But for the rest of us, it\u2019s like a creative awakening.”<\/p>\n

“No one puts Double Fine out of business except for me,” he continued. “Asha\u2019s not going to shoot my dog. I\u2019m going to shoot it. But I\u2019m not going to shoot it, because it\u2019s going to do great. A lot of people want to walk the dog.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Thankfully, Double Fine was able to retain its intellectual property<\/a> and become fully independent, though it did have to lay off a quarter of its staff<\/u><\/a> as a result of this change. That isn\u2019t stopping it from making more games, though, as the developer recently published a Kickstarter for its next project \u2014 with the addendum that if it raises $100 million, they\u2019ll also make Brutal Legend 2.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve been through a lot this year,” Schafer told Schreier. “A lot of it is very soul-sucking stuff. Inner conflict, threats of extermination, long negotiations, strenuous hard tradeoffs with lawyers. Tons of demoralizing stuff.”<\/p>\n

And yet, in spite of these challenges, Schafer says he\u2019s been able to find a creative spark that has invigorated both himself and the remaining team at Double Fine.<\/p>\n

“This is the good fight. Can we think of a great idea for a game that we can actually do for the right budget, that can get to this publisher who\u2019s 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. So it is hard, and it is scary and it is stressful, but it\u2019s at least putting some fire back into the bellies of the team and me,” he said.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Xbox has undergone a slew of major changes as CEO Asha Sharma works to make the company profitable again. Shedding Double Fine was part of that change, as well as massive layoffs that affected roughly 3,200 employees.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sharma has been fairly transparent with Xbox\u2019s financial state and future plans, most recently telling the BBC that the brand\u2019s next generation console, Project Helix, will include a \u201cfamily of devices,\u201d<\/a> though she notably declined to comment if it\u2019ll have a disc drive or not.<\/a><\/p>\n

In other Double Fine news, the developer shadow dropped Keeper<\/a>, a formerly Xbox-exclusive title, on PlayStation 5 today now that it’s no longer tied to the company. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Virginia (she\/her) is IGN\u2019s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she\u2019s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at <\/em>@TheeMissGlaze<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim Schafer, game designer and founder of Psychonauts developer Double Fine, gave a strong response after Xbox divested the studio as part of its massive restructuring efforts this summer. Speaking with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier in a September 2026 interview, Schafer admitted that he knew something was up before Xbox\u2019s divestment was officially announced \u2014 but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,243],"class_list":["post-2128761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-ign-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2128761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2128761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2128761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2128761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}