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Microsoft’s acquisition of Double Fine earlier this year netted it each the developer and publisher sides of the business, but the future of the publishing arm remains uncertain — even to the company’s founder.
Speaking to Destructoid, Tim Schafer admitted he did not have a clear thought of what would come to be of Double Fine Presents, although he indicating it would probably be unable to continue in its present kind.
“How Double Fine Presents will evolve is type of an unknown,” he stated. “It does not make sense to do specifically the type of publishing stuff if we cannot do it– like if the platforms are restricted. From a small business sense, I never know if it structurally tends to make sense to have a publisher inside [another publisher]. It is a difficult concern.”
Even so, Schafer also pointed out that regardless of the publishing side’s future, Double Fine would stay devoted to assisting independent developers via events such as Day of the Devs, now as component of Microsoft.
Double Fine was acquired by Microsoft earlier this year, with promises that there would be no layoffs on the publishing group as a outcome of the acquisition and that all current publishing commitments would go forward as planned. This involves Knights and Bikes, which just launched final week, and Samurai Gunn two, which is planned for launch this year. A further formerly Double Fine Presents-published title, Ooblets, opted to switch to self-publishing.
“Plans for specifically what shape Double Fine Presents will take right after that are evolving, but there will be no layoffs and we stay committed to our objective of supporting and spotlighting distinctive and original independent games and developers,” stated Microsoft VP of small business improvement Greg Rice at the time.