KickStarter Psychonauts 2

[vortex]

What will Starbreeze do now ?

 

[Abu Antar]

What will Starbreeze do now ?

Go under.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[LESS T_T]

Starbreeze sold publishing rights for 13.2M USD: https://www.starbreeze.com/2019/06/...to-microsoft-corporation-receiving-13-2-musd/

STARBREEZE ASSIGNS ALL PUBLISHING RIGHTS FOR PSYCHONAUTS 2 TO MICROSOFT CORPORATION RECEIVING 13.2 MUSD

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (June 9, 2019)– Starbreeze and Microsoft Corporation has signed an agreement where Starbreeze assigns all publishing rights, related agreements and commitments for the title, to Microsoft receiving 13.2 MUSD.

Starbreeze acquired the publishing rights for Double Fine’s “Psychonauts 2” in 2017 with a commitment to invest 8 MUSD for the development of the title.

As previously announced, Starbreeze will focus on its core business of games development and publishing.

“As we continue the work of securing long-term financing for Starbreeze, it’s extremely important that we find the best possible structure for the company in the long run. Although we see the Publishing unit as part of the core business, it is a cash intense business and requires continuous investments to enable the products to be launched successfully. We definitely want to continue being a best in class Publishing partner for external studios in the future, but our main focus right now is to secure the continued operations of the internal games development and self-publishing units”, said Mikael Nermark, acting Starbreeze CEO.

 

[HoboForEternity]

and hopefully M$ can put schafer on tight leash. maybe with higher ups, he can perform as well as he was in 90's and early 00's.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I don't like how no one mentioned that Psychonauts 2 got pushed back another year.

On the upside it looks like it ain't gonna end up as an Epic Game Store exclusive.

 

[aris]

From what little I saw, gameplay looks pretty good actually!

 

[J_C]

From what little I saw, gameplay looks pretty good actually!

It's classic Psychonauts gameplay, thankfully they didn't try tro reinvent the wheel with it.

 

[Abu Antar]

From what little I saw, gameplay looks pretty good actually!

It's classic Psychonauts gameplay, thankfully they didn't try tro reinvent the wheel with it.

I'm interested. I just want them to improve the camera.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Tehdagah]

From what little I saw, gameplay looks pretty good actually!

It's classic Psychonauts gameplay, thankfully they didn't try tro reinvent the wheel with it.

Psychonauts gameplay is boring.

 

[aris]

From what little I saw, gameplay looks pretty good actually!

It's classic Psychonauts gameplay, thankfully they didn't try tro reinvent the wheel with it.

Psychonauts gameplay is boring.

If the same gameplay were set in boring and samey set pieces, I would probably agree, but the inventive and fantastic levels of psychonauts enhances the gameplay. But that is true for almost any game, except for the most convoluted and complex ones, most games can't survive on gameplay alone.

 

[Tehdagah]

From what little I saw, gameplay looks pretty good actually!

It's classic Psychonauts gameplay, thankfully they didn't try tro reinvent the wheel with it.

Psychonauts gameplay is boring.

If the same gameplay were set in boring and samey set pieces, I would probably agree, but the inventive and fantastic levels of psychonauts enhances the gameplay. But that is true for almost any game, except for the most convoluted and complex ones, most games can't survive on gameplay alone.

No, it's just a slow and derivative platformer.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/06/13/psychonauts-2-funny-preview-e3-2019/

Psychonauts 2 is funny, surreal, and has a lot of teeth in it

If Disney Pixar did a remake of Inception, it would probably look like Psychonauts 2. At least, that’s how I’m going to explain it to those who have not played the original. Yes, I know Psychonauts explored the mind invasion angle years before Leonardo and the girl from The Last Of Us got lost in the brain of a trust fund baby. But that’s still the predominant feeling I got from my short demo at E3. In this section of the game the aforementioned ‘nauts scramble around inside the emotional turmoil of long-time enemy and respected dentist, Doctor Loboto. It’s a bizarre and colourful world, and it’s run-o-jumping looks to be fine and dandy, even if it also seems at times a little unambitious.

The game starts with a bait and switch, with hero Razputin and the rest of the gang from the previous game seemingly working in a massive office. It turns out life in the elite governmental spy organisation is quite dull day-to-day. Chief Oleander (the shouty military man with a head like an upturned ice cream cone) has gone from army man to CEO, and is getting everyone together for the company’s regular “morale corral”.

“And that’s how profits have risen 900 percent,” he says, as our heroes enter the room.



Then he announces the employee of the month winner – it’s Doc Loboto! He has won a tropical beach holiday, and comes to the stage to collect his prize. But it’s all a ruse. The gang is inside Loboto’s head, and trying to lull the bad doctor into bringing a consent form to his shadowy boss (or at least the psychological manifestation of his boss). This is a bigger, badder psychic evil we don’t yet understand as the player, and it’s the person the ‘nauts are really after.

Unfortunately, the doctor figures it out, and goes legging it through the recesses of his own sordid consciousness. As Raz, the player has to chase the psychoperp as the office décor of the gang’s “construct” starts to crumble away, replaced by protruding gums and teeth of the doc’s true mindscape.

This is all probably a bit weird to strangers of the series. It was to me, having only played a few hours of the first game in preparation for this brief showing. From that taste of the old stuff, though, all I would demand of Sequelnauts is enough modern platforming sensibilities to keep me docile while the jokes fly out and the story unfolds in its own goofy way. It looks like this might be the case, but sadly I didn’t get to lay my mitts on the controls. I could only peer from afar as a dude at the top of the room double-jumped over toothy gaps and slid down collapsing office hallways.

Platformer-wise, it seems more vanilla than I expected. There are health bars in the corner. You can smash through boxes. There is wall-jumping, dodge-rolling, trinket collecting. There was floating levitation, and a sequence in which Raz rolled around on top of a ball of energy. I have a vague feeling if you took out all the weird corridors made of teeth, and the periodic jokey chats between characters, there’d be nothing here that wasn’t already in any Ratchet and Clank game. Again, this is only a demo, so it is possible we’re only seeing the most obvious stuff, but still – I thirst for more.

Obviously, there are baddies to fight too, defeated using Raz’s melee smashes and telekinetic box-flinging. The beasties take a few different forms. “Doubts” are flying creatures laden with heavy iron burdens. “Regrets” are slimy gits who slurp out of the floor and gloop towards you. And then there are “Censors” (recognisable to players of the first game), who are stuffy bureaucretins in suits who fire stamps of the “no” symbol at you. You can kill all these nasties with the usual smashing, but we also saw a “pyrokinesis” area attack that set all of these problems ablaze.

But much of this gamey stuff will be of tangential importance to Razlovers. Double Fine often simply chase a funny and childish dream with their games. Doubly childish considering so many of their games are about kids just trying to get through some strange event (Costume Quest’s trick or treaters, Stacking’s cheeky Matryska doll). Psychonauts felt like a “jokes first, game later” type deal. And there is some of that attitude present here.



I smirked at the cowardly Oleander when he knocked over a chair as he ran through the background of a shot. One early visual jape sees Raz trying to squeeze through the crowd, and his comically large head makes it difficult to do that, even though his slim body can get through the gaps between people just fine. I didn’t hear any jokes I liked as much as the quiet crosstalk gag at the start of the first Psychonauts, where Oleander guesses the starting letter of Razputin’s name incorrectly in the middle of our hero introducing himself. But I still smiled a lot throughout the demo. I exhaled a lot of happy air out of my nose, you know?

More impressive still were the surreal corridors and warping level design, which seems to work much better with today’s animation and effects than those of yesteryear. There are doors made of two clenched jaws, which open open as if pulled apart by a zipper, there are sagging uvulas hanging down like punchbags, hallways that stretch suddenly into infinity, chattering teeth toys, blue nerve endings poking out from a fleshy gum floor, flying personified teeth who speak like gangsters.

It is the bendy world of Christopher Nolan but with jokes and more than two colours. Part of me wishes I had something more incisive to report than “game X is thing Y meets thing Z” because that is so often a simplfication, especially when game X was doing both Y and Z before Y and Z were cool and famous. But sometimes we stoop to the mash-up, because that’s just where our brains go. It’s Pixar and Inception and Ratchet and Clank.

 

[Multidirectional]

Stop posting RPS articles.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[samuraigaiden]

Does Tim Schafer still own Fig?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I only watched a brief part of this video, but stopped because Tim won't stop talking.

What interests me far more is the thumbnail. There's a detail in there that gives away a possible plot element. I wonder...?

 

[J_C]

What interests me far more is the thumbnail. There's a detail in there that gives away a possible plot element. I wonder...?

Raz going to the dark side?

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/psychonauts-2/updates/938



Delayed to 2020.

 

[Multidirectional]

In before the game is split into two parts.

 

[Curratum]

Schafer is late with a game? Say it ain't so!

 

[Heretic]

He is FAT.

 

[LESS T_T]

Bill bucks: https://www.destructoid.com/psychon...ts-before-the-game-even-launches-562736.phtml

MS paid Fig 1M USD for its publishing rights to this.

Psychonauts 2 investors are getting guaranteed profits before the game even launches

Spurred on by Microsoft buying Double Fine


Psychonauts 2 is getting made because enough people believed in it. Some of those people supported it like a normal crowdfunded game -- chip in at a tier and then earn some rewards. But, because it was funded by Fig, others made actual investments. They believed Psychonauts 2 would be a success and that they'd earn money by the game selling well.

Those investors will be rewarded, just not the way they thought. Last month, Microsoft announced that it had acquired Double Fine. As a part of that transaction, it also bought the Psychonauts 2 publishing rights from Fig. Because of this, Fig will soon disburse dividends to anyone who invested.

In a message that went out to Psychonauts 2 investors today, Fig confirmed that it'll be sending out first and final payments in mid-September. It's a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, each $500 share will see a 139 percent return which amounts to a $196 dividend per share. That rate is actually higher than what Fig originally promised. However, investors no longer have the opportunity to earn more in the event that Psychonauts 2 is a wild success. That being said, most of them are probably thrilled to take the guaranteed profit.

Here's the full statement that was sent to Psychonauts 2 investors:

As you may already know, Double Fine has recently announced it is joining the Microsoft family -- we are excited for them to start the next stage in their journey of making unique and creative games and can't wait to see what they do next. As a part of this transition, Microsoft has also purchased Fig's publishing rights for Psychonauts 2, for a price of $1,035,000, which will provide a positive return to all investors in Fig Game Shares -- PSY2 prior to the game even launching! Fig will also be paying out a dividend rate of 85% on the proceeds of this buyout to investors instead of the 70% listed in the offering circular for Fig Game Shares -- PSY2.

Our goal has been to get fans involved in the financial funding and growth of the games that they love while providing for the opportunity to also participate in the financial returns. We are thrilled to be able to provide a positive return to passionate gamers who so generously contributed to this project! Based on proceeds from this deal, we will be making a first and final dividend of $696.00 per share (a 139% return on each $500 share) around September 18th of this year. As an investor in Fig Game Shares - PSY2, you have helped support Double Fine and the development of Psychonauts 2. The game simply would not be what it is without you.​

Of the four big games on Fig, two games (this and Phoenix Point) generated profits, not from consumer sales.

Investors of Wasteland 3 and Deadfire weep.