You often hear that Game Pass is the best deal in gaming (before it became a meme, anyway) but you’ll often hear people on the internet wondering how it will impact game development.
I had a chance to sit down with some of the key people behind Psychonauts 2 in a group question and answer session.
In the session, a question was posed to Tim Schafer, Studio Head at Double Fine, as to whether the knowledge that Psychonauts 2 coming to Game Pass would influence the design of the game at all.
In response to the question, Tim clarified that the question for Double Fine when they joined Xbox Game Studios was “what would you do with Psychonauts if you weren’t as constrained with resources as you were being an indie studio” essentially saying the acquisition meant that he would be given more time to finish the game and make sure it was better for the players.
On the games viability on Xbox Game Pass, Schafer said:
“It’s the perfect game for Game Pass. It’s an unusual and quirky game that I think might be a risky thing for someone in a store who is thinking about spending $60 (US) on a game. You have to think about the purchase, get a good word of mouth going before taking a chance on a game like this. But on Game Pass, it’s so much easier. Players will just try it and you’ll reach a lot more people because of that.”
I think he’s definitely on to something there. Double Fine’s games are all super charming but aren’t for everyone, so it makes sense to make the most effort to get the game into everyone’s hands to let it speak for itself.
I recently was able to play heaps of the game in a preview build, you can check out my thoughts HERE.
Psychonauts 2 is out on August 25th 2021 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 (via backwards compatibility). It will be included at launch with Xbox Game Pass.
