Tim Schafer Interview, Psychonaut Magazine Review...(Update 01/06/05)

[Kweepa]

But he'll never make any money. Double Fine will surely go under eventually, and that will be a dismal day.

Nice positive attitude!
We'll see what the Psychonauts sales figures are like soon enough... if the PC and XBox sales are good, it'll be good for the PS2 version's advertising budget.

[Meowster]

Since Psychonauts has been so badly distributed (places not getting it in for weeks, etc) and that Europe won't get it for months yet, it'll be a while before we can start to see Psychonauts real sales results.

[LimpingFish]

The European Videogame Market has a history of ignoring original, imaginative titles, on all formats. Ico, Gregory Horror Show, and Oddworld Strangers (something), have had unanimously(?) positive reviews that didn't transfer to sales. And the publishers don't help at all. Oddworld Inhabitants have decided to get out of the games market completely becuase of EA's almost total lack of marketing for its game.

And the less said about LucasArts, the better...

Psychonauts has already had the bad press to be dropped by its original publisher, who presumably couldn't see beyond the fact the it wasn't a licensed product.

Despite its quality, Psychonauts has a uphill struggle and, unfortunately, its success or failure will likely dictate the future of Double Fine.

I wish Tim Schafer well...

[Meowster]

I don't think Psychonaut's success will dictate the future for Double Fine. Majesco have taken many creative games under their wing recently, and Psychonaut's was one. When they rescued it from Microsoft, they understood that Psychonauts probably would not make a great profit after having such an uphill struggle for so long.

With Majesco firmly by their side now, Double Fine can enjoy producing another original game title without all of the struggling.

[LimpingFish]

I don't know...Multiformat games that aren't licenced brandnames usually have their work cut out to make a profit. Look at UbiSoft and Beyond Good and Evil (Great game! ). Everybody talked about it, but nobody bought it. It made money, but it was spread over so many formats that UbiSoft considered it a flop. So much so that the creative team got put on to 'King Kong', a film-licence, rather than a BG+E sequel.

Psychonauts is on three formats, including the EA dominated PS2. I just can't see it storming the charts.

Majesco will probably take a sympathetic view, but a factor for continued success is brand-name recognition. I don't know how many times they'll take a risk on original IP's.

(LimpingFish pledges to by a copy of Psychonauts on every format. TWO if he has to!)

[Meowster]

Yeah but since they knew and accepted that they were probably not going to make much out of Psychonauts by the time they got to it, I'd say they'll base their judgement on the NEXT game rather than on Psychonauts.

[LimpingFish]

Majesco isn't exactly EA, in the money stakes. When it boils down to it, they'll still want to see some sort of comeback on Psychonauts. How it performs could affect how much freedom the allow Double Fine on their next project. If they hold creativity over profits, and here's praying they do , everything will be fine. It's just a cutthroat industry. And independent studios are usually first under the blade.

EDIT: (LimpingFish is a card-carrying Pessamist!)

[Kweepa]

I'm talking out my arse here, but my understanding is that Microsoft funded about 2/3 of the development of Psychonauts, so it will be relatively easy for Majesco to make a profit on it. And I mean relatively easy in the literal sense of relative to a project that they've had to fully fund, not absolutely easy.

It's been, what, 18 months since Microsoft dropped it? And there are 25 or so developers. That's about $3,000,000. Add $500,000 for the PS2 version and $500,000 for marketing. Let's say Majesco make $8 a unit, then they need to sell about 500,000 to break even. Oh dear. [EDIT - for sane figures]

As for your comment (Limping Fish) that EA dominates the PS2, that's no reason to not release a game for it. The fact is that the PS2 is by far the biggest market, so you'd be foolish (or Nintendo or Microsoft) not to put your game on it.

[LimpingFish]

As for your comment (Limping Fish) that EA dominates the PS2, that's no reason to not release a game for it. The fact is that the PS2 is by far the biggest market, so you'd be foolish (or Nintendo or Microsoft) not to put your game on it.

Of course the PS2 is the biggest market. Its also seemingly the best market to release a 'Quirky' game (Ico, Gregory Horror Show, Katamari Damacy...etc, etc...at least quirky by western-market standards). The X-Box has relatively few 'Quirky' titles, not withstanding the Oddworld games (and look what happened to them ). Psychonauts will probably see its highest sales on PC, as Schafers' name would be mostly known to PC gamers. The problem with the PS2 is that its biggest sales seem to go to established brands or licences, a lot of them owned by EA.

And in being the biggest market, its also the market that's flooded with more titles than any other (except maybe PC), making it harder for Psychonauts to be recognized among the masses.

Leaving aside the argument about making or breaking Double Line, if Psychonauts is to be a calling-card for its developer it's gonna have to sell to create any sort of name recognition.


EDIT: Don't know if anybody seen it, but for more of Tim Schafers' wise words head here...
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, 
http://tinyurl.com/bhxhj

[Stee_notloggedin]

EA dominate PS2? It depends on how you define dominate. Sure EA pile the ps2 shelves with shit, BUT they get whooped whenever a new GTA game comes out or a new smackdown game comes out. Personally I don't think any of their games are in my top 5 favourite ps2 games. They're too heavily sport based, and they're not even good at that, eg Smackdown in my opinion is better than any of their fighting games, Gran Turismo and Burnout better then need for speed. Pro Evolution Soccer (AKA Winning Eleven) is WAY better than FIFA  . Just to add insult to injury, the ps2's bond series is a joke. I assume psychonauts is not a sports game? If not than it definitely has a chance against EA.

I'd buy the PC version anyway if I was to buy one. I always like the fact that games on PC can be modded.

[Cardician]

I assume psychonauts is not a sports game?

Psychonauts is actually a 3rd person platformer, like the Mario games or the Ratchet & Clank games. I guess these days they call it an action/adventure game, but whatever, its a platformer.

I'd buy the PC version anyway if I was to buy one. I always like the fact that games on PC can be modded.

I'd recommend getting it for a console. Just my opinion, but PC does not work well at all for platformers, and the PC reviews of Psychonauts seem to back this up.

IMO, if Psychonauts is as good as Ratchet & Clank, I'll definitely obtain it. I loved those games. And heres to Schafer for being so creative. Its an inspiration and I love to see it.

[m0ds]

LimpingFish, what does your signiature say?

I can never quite read the middle, long line... ?

[Al_Ninio]

"An experience in psychological horror".

[rodekill]

Anybody get the bonus DVD with the Psychonauts cutscenes?
It showed up at my door today.
Apparently it's a thank you for ordering from the DF store.
So cool.
Double Fine is exactly the type of company the industry needs.
Small, super-creative, and appreciative of their fans.

It's a shame the distribution of Psychonauts is such a mess. I literally saw it for the first time in a store yesterday. One copy. That's just rediculous.
And no PC version in sight yet.

[Domino]

I've been meaning to buy a new Xbox game lately and for some reason I always forget about Psychonauts.  Damn!! How could I forget.

I've had Doom 3 on the brain lately and still haven't bought that game either.

But I have to pick up Psychonauts before I buy Doom 3.

Tim deserves my money, and it looks like an awesome game, and the reviews have been good too.