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Schafer: Publishers "don't see enough financial reward" on PC

By Alec Meer

Thu 25 Nov 2010 9:15am GMT / 4:15am EST / 1:15am PST
PeopleDevelopment

"If we ever get super stinking rich we will make PC versions ourselves" - Double Fine

Double Fine Productions boss Tim Schafer has claimed that publishers are resistant to funding PC versions of the studio's games.

"As a developer we do not have final say in the SKU plan for our games," he wrote on the company site yesterday. "That is the decision of the person investing the money, i.e. the publisher.

"We have much of the technology in place to produce PC versions of all these games, but there is still some more work required to make them shippable and that costs money. So far, our publishers have not elected to fund that work."

Schafer felt this was simply because publishers "don't see enough financial reward."

Oddly, Double Fine's current games, last month's Costume Quest and the upcoming Stacking, are both published by THQ - whose VP Danny Bilson earlier this month announced that "You're going to see us putting out almost every, single console title we can on PC."

Schafer was adamant that the developer did not wish to abandon the platform on which he made his name, however. "We always push for a PC version, and will continue to do so in the future," he claimed.

"If we ever get super stinking rich here, with enough money to fund PC versions of our games, then we will go back and make them ourselves."

The developer also expressed an interest in making games for the Wii.

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5 Comments

Greg Wilcox Creator, Destroy All Fanboys!

2,584 1,632 0.6
Awesome. Psychonauts on the Wii would be a trip, but I'd LOVE to see Costume Quest pop up on the DS (or 3DS) at some point... That and boxed PC version for us stubborn bastards out there...


g.

Posted:5 years ago

#1

Tomis programmer

20 6 0.3
Tim Schafer is indeed a great game developer and human being. It's sad that not stabbing in the back the community that made you big is a rare trait in this day and age.

Posted:5 years ago

#2

Jamie Watson Studying Bachelor of Games & Interactive Entertainment, Queensland University of Technology

179 0 0.0
now only if publishers and some devs would over the fact the PC gaming is alive and well and does have a future.....

Brutal legend on PC would be awsome!

Posted:5 years ago

#3
As a student and massive PC gamer who wants to join Double Fine after college...I'm glad the spirit is there. Seriously, do publishers not see the market? It seems to me like it's there, even more so with Double Fine's games...

Posted:5 years ago

#4

Greg Wilcox Creator, Destroy All Fanboys!

2,584 1,632 0.6
^Jay, since Double Fine doesn't make games that fit the current big trends in "core" PC gaming (FPS, RTS, MMO), it's a case of publishers not seeing past the appeal of primarily single player game experiences no matter how great they can be.

Thanks to Telltale Games and other publishers, adventure games aren't dead just yet, but they're a niche market that's ignored by major game review sites for the most part, despite some excellent entries in the genre. Then, there are amazing indie games such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent or arty masterpieces like The Path as well as many others that don't fit into easily labeled (and reviewed) boxes the way the above genres do.

Heh, I'd gather if Double Fine went strictly "casual" and started churning out "hidden object" games for PC by the month, they'd see an insanely huge spike in sales, but only to the millions of folks who do their best gaming as hunters and peckers (er... don't take that the wrong way). I'm kidding of course, but that sub-genre IS pretty huge these days...

Granted, Brutal Legend shipped with online multiplayer modes and is indeed a RTS (a simple one, but a RTS any way you look at it). However, I'd gather the console versions didn't move enough numbers to justify EA taking the risk of funding a PC version even if it had more content and more refined controls for keyboard and mouse.

Edited 2 times. Last edit by Greg Wilcox on 26th November 2010 11:15am

Posted:5 years ago

#5

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