Double Fine has now joined the Microsoft Games Studios family.
Announced during the Xbox E3 press conference, Tim Schafer’s studio is now a Microsoft first party.
Known for making wonderfully weird, well loved games like Psychonauts, Iron Brigade and Brutal Legend, the acquisition of Double Fine by Microsoft came massively out of left field, but could prove to be an incredibly astute move in the years to come. After all, Double Fine has an incredible pedigree of making games that are completely different to the kinds of titles Microsoft is associated with.
Studio head Tim Schafer was on stage to share the news and debut a new trailer for the highly anticipated Psychonauts 2. The trailer was good, giving us our first look at the game in action. It’s as crazily creative as you’d expect from a Psychonauts sequel. You can watch it in the trailer below.
Much like The Outer Wilds — the new game from Obsidian which also got a new trailer during the show — Psychonauts 2 will remain a cross platform title as planned. This is something that is sure to please non-Xbox owners out there.
Double Fine has a long working relationship with Microsoft. The company produced four exclusive games for the Xbox 360, including two Kinect titles, from 2011 until the release of The Cave in 2013. Still, this news comes as a huge surprise.
Microsoft has added seven new studios to it’s first-party lineup since 2018, founding The Initiative and purchasing Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Playground Games, Undead Labs, inXille and Compulsion Games.
You could say they’re getting serious about first party.
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