• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Starbreeze to publish Psychonauts 2, investing $8 million, releasing 2018

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Gemastu said:
Starbreeze Publishing will publish Psychonauts 2, the anticipated sequel currently in development at Double Fine Productions, in 2018, the company announced. Starbreeze will invest $8 million USD to bring the game to PC and other console platforms through digital distribution.
Bo Andersson-Klint, CEO of Starbreeze

”Many of us gamers who've grown up during 70's and 80's have at some point come across the great games from Double Fine and Tim Schafer. Games like Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Brutal Legend are all in the list of personal all time favorites for many of us. We're very proud to be able to add this prominent collaboration to our Publishing business. Starbreeze is looking forward to support Double Fine in bringing the new and exciting game Psychonauts 2 to young and old gamers world wide"

Tim Schafer, President and CEO of Double Fine Productions

”Starbreeze is the perfect partner for Double Fine and our backers on Psychonauts 2. Their expertise in not just developing and publishing games, but supporting them after launch will be a great benefit for players of the game."
Source: http://gematsu.com/2017/02/starbreeze-publish-psychonauts-2#Vqy5KVxBHmmLqQsz.99

Starbreeze said:
Starbreeze will be able to recoup 100% of its full investment including marketing costs with an initial revenue share of 85% after distribution and platform fees and Fig crowdfunding revenue share. Starbreeze share of revenues will become 60% after the investment is recouped. Double Fine will retain 100% of the intellectual property relating to Psychonauts 2.
Source: https://www.starbreeze.com/2017/02/...ouble-fines-highly-anticipated-psychonauts-2/
 
What has Starbreexe released in the past?

Edit: Sorry am a dummy. Also is Brothers worth getting in Android? Filled up both my PC and PS4 hard drives.
 

Erevador

Member
Happy to hear that they'll have the cash to do full justice to the game. Seems like a big win for the title.
 

Vibranium

Banned
Good stuff, nice to see Starbreeze is helping with the extra funds here. I really hope the development process goes smoothly.

Double Fine had mentioned they were getting big funding from a partner, I guess this is it.
 

LewieP

Member
I wonder how this will impact their investors on fig, who were probably already not going to see a return on their investment.

Edit: or perhaps Starbreeze are the previously unnamed partner.
 

Timeless

Member
I say this as a big fan of Broken Age: I have no idea how Psychonauts 2 will turn a profit for anyone involved. 8 million plus another 3 million from fig still leaves several million unaccounted for from the 20 million figure given to Notch when he was fantasizing about funding Psychonauts 2.
 
I wonder how this impacts all the people who crowdfunded it. Game development sure has changed.

In any case, glad to see it's being made.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Brothers was a Starbeeeze joint? Huh
 

arigato

Member
Game looked good from the most recent videos I've seen. I'm glad they took pointers and inspiration from Rayman 2 (Dreamcast).
 

Shiggy

Member
Starbreeze will be able to recoup 100% of its full investment including marketing costs with an initial revenue share of 85% after distribution and platform fees and Fig crowdfunding revenue share. Starbreeze share of revenues will become 60% after the investment is recouped. Double Fine will retain 100% of the intellectual property relating to Psychonauts 2.

Is anyone else going to get any money from this game, apart from Starbreeze and Double Fine?
 

LewieP

Member
Is anyone else going to get any money from this game, apart from Starbreeze and Double Fine?
No. Fig investors will get some return, but less than their initial investment.

The numbers that DF published to show that it would be profitable for fig investors were based on the (obviously misleading) idea that Psychonauts 2 will sell as many copies at full price as the first game sold in total, including bundles and sales at $1.

I can only assume investors either just wanted to help get the game made and don't care about making a profit, or are the embodiment of a fool and their money being swiftly parted.
 

Kiriku

SWEDISH PERFECTION
Brothers was a Starbeeeze joint? Huh

Yeah, it was the first game developed by the 'new' Starbreeze IIRC, mostly made up of rather inexperienced people in terms of game dev. The old Starbreeze that made games like Riddick, The Darkness etc left to form Machines Games (more or less).
Starbreeze of today is something completely different than the original developer. They invest in established IPs, buy other studios, publish games for other developers and invest in VR (with their own VR headset StarVR).
 
The only Starbreeze game I remember playing as a kid was Enclave on the Xbox. It's one of my guilty pleasures. I love that game.
 

Jintor

Member
the only ones who profit from this are those want psychonauts 2 to exist...

...i'm one of them, so i guess this is okay
 

PaulloDEC

Member
I'm cool with this. The article on Starbreeze's website says that:

Starbreeze will be the major investor in the project, which also has been funded by Double Fine itself, as well as through a successful crowdfunding Fig campaign in which gamers invested directly to take part in potential future profits.

...so I'm guessing they're the mysterious investor Double Fine have had onboard since the beginning.
 

NoPiece

Member
No. Fig investors will get some return, but less than their initial investment.

The numbers that DF published to show that it would be profitable for fig investors were based on the (obviously misleading) idea that Psychonauts 2 will sell as many copies at full price as the first game sold in total, including bundles and sales at $1.

I can only assume investors either just wanted to help get the game made and don't care about making a profit, or are the embodiment of a fool and their money being swiftly parted.

Starbreeze is investing 8 million, I assume they care a lot about making a profit.

 

jetsetrez

Member
Starbreeze will be able to recoup 100% of its full investment including marketing costs with an initial revenue share of 85% after distribution and platform fees and Fig crowdfunding revenue share. Starbreeze share of revenues will become 60% after the investment is recouped. Double Fine will retain 100% of the intellectual property relating to Psychonauts 2.

Well. Good luck on anyone making a profit out of this, lol.
 
It is kind of nuts that Double Fine has managed to survive all this time and is somehow making a decent budget follow up to Psychonauts. Pretty cool stuff honestly.
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
I'm glad this exists. I just hope it goes well for Starbreeze.

I remember when they announced their own VR headset and I just had a sick feeling in my stomach that they were making a horrible decision...
 

pswii60

Member
It's amazing the game is happening at all really. But I struggle to see Starbreeze making back their investment. The game is going to need to sell well over a million copies at its likely initial release price.
 
Good news that they're still keeping the IP. That's the one thing I wanted to ask them about regarding this.

Very nice update overall.

It's amazing the game is happening at all really. But I struggle to see Starbreeze making back their investment. The game is going to need to sell well over a million copies at its likely initial release price.

It's up to Starbreeze now to provide the support and the marketing for that to happen.
 
Is this going to be on their VR platform thingy?

I wouldn't be surprised if their VR platform never comes to fruition. Seems like a dumb investment for a mid-sized company, and I'd guess that R&D would be tens if not hundreds of millions.

I hope this doesn't sink Starbreeze when the game turns out to be a dud.

I doubt $8 million is enough to sink Starbreeze. Plus, I'm guessing Payday 2 is quite the cash cow for them.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
dang that looks alot better than i imagined after tempered expectations from Yooka Laylee, Bloodstained etc.

psy2_quarry8xsto.gif


psy2_quarry_2w2s2a.gif


From the latest art test.

I'm confident we're going to wind up with a very sexy game. They've got a lot more money to play with than pretty much any other crowdfunded game I can think of (excluding the frankly ridiculous Star Citizen).
 

Kasper

Member
I never would have imagined Starbreeze to be the secret partner. Frankly, everything seems to be turning out much better thus far than I would have thought given Double Fines dodgy past. The game really looks fantastic.
 
I echo the thoughts that find it hard to see how this is going to turn a profit. Hope DF haven't tied all their eggs to this basket, I know they're putting their own money in too.
 
Top Bottom