{"id":822034,"date":"2026-08-22T11:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/822034\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T11:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:30:08","slug":"psychonauts-developer-double-fine-gets-rights-to-games-back-but-union-future-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/822034\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychonauts Developer Double Fine Gets Rights To Games Back, But Union Future Uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Psychonauts, Keeper, and Kiln developer Double Fine, like South Of Midnight studio Compulsion<\/a>, is now officially free and clear of Microsoft. If you buy its games, you\u2019re supporting an indie that frankly, well, needs it, as opposed to a genocide-abetting mega corporation<\/a>. But it\u2019s not all good news: Double Fine\u2019s union push, which we first reported on back in May<\/a>, is for the moment no more.<\/p>\n

Double Fine director of marketing and communications James Spafford confirmed Double Fine\u2019s independence to Aftermath.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm that we are officially independent, the deal is closed, and buying our games now directly supports us just the same as Compulsion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition, Double Fine founder Tim Schafer went on Kinda Funny<\/a> to divulge more about plans for the future, announcing that the studio is bringing back its internal game jam, Amnesia Fortnight, with a Kickstarter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to do a Game Jam, live on the internet, in which our backers will get to choose which of our myriad of ideas get made into four new prototypes\u2014and which of those final four will become a real (small) game,\u201d reads the Kickstarter page. \u201cYou may even snag some sweet merchables and rarities along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kickstarter, which will also include a documentary of the entire process by 2 Player Productions, goes live on August 31.<\/p>\n

During the Kinda Funny appearance, Schafer compared Double Fine’s current state to the period of time after it finished Brutal Legend, only for EA to cancel the sequel\u2014ultimately leading the studio to focus on smaller Amnesia Fortnight projects like Stacking and Iron Brigade.<\/p>\n

“We got a little bit of runway on the departure [from Microsoft] to sign some games,” he said. “We want to sign some game deals, get going, it\u2019s kind of a scary time to be out there. It\u2019s a runway, not a freeway, it doesn\u2019t go forever. It\u2019s just a little patch where we can take off on our own power, and we want to extend it a little bit. … So we\u2019re doing a game jam, which we used to do a lot.”<\/p>\n

Not long after announcing that it would be regaining its independence from Microsoft in July, Double Fine laid off 23 members of its staff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for the Double Fine workers\u2019 union, the original petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board in early May. At the time, it covered all regular full-time and part-time employees\u2014a total of 42. Today, however, CWA, the union that has helped thousands of Microsoft game workers organize, informed Aftermath that workers withdrew their petition just a couple weeks after filing it (and well before layoffs or Double Fine regaining its independence). The union did not elaborate as to why.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond that, we don’t have any updates,\u201d said a CWA spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Aftermath asked Double Fine for additional details but did not receive a reply as of this publishing.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

Money Spent On South Of Midnight Now Supports Its Developers, Not Microsoft<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm we have regained ownership of our IP, and that the publishing rights are transferring back to Compulsion\u201d<\/p>\n

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