Marek

Psychonauts postmortem in Game Developer

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... well, apparently there is one, but I haven't read it. According to the postmortem's fact sheet the game cost 11.8 million to make.

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So that is quite a lot of money in modern day standards, I presume?

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So that is quite a lot of money in modern day standards, I presume?

Actually, I don't think so.

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Actually, I don't think so.

No, that's a lot of money. Most games don't take that much money unless they're really triple-A. $7M is already seen as a "high-budget" game.

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Whoops!

How big a chunk of that was picked up by Majesco and how much did Microsoft spend?

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I think a very large chunk was MS money, probably at least 2/3 or 3/4, otherwise I doubt Majesco would have picked it up.

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Well Majesco had to pay for the marketting, packaging, and publishing and distribution. Plus about a year of development cost I presume?

I still can't find Psychonauts neither for the XBOX or PC in any store I go to. I really don't understand how a game can sell if it's not displayed.

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Was Psychonauts not AAA? Was it AA or something? What are the distinctions?

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AAA basically means 'a sequel to a very successful game', in a practical sense. There's no actual 'A' ratings handed out...

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Was Psychonauts not AAA? Was it AA or something? What are the distinctions?

Yeah who knows what that really means. Would God of War or GTA3 have been considered an "AAA" title if they hadn't done well/been well received? Driv3r clearly is not referred to as "AAA" by people even though it probably had the budget and production values of many allegedly "AAA" titles, because it is unpopular.

"AAA" seems like a stupid moniker that is awarded to games after they already ship and do well, which is troubling considering the number of publishers who now say they are "only interested in picking up AAA titles" from prospective developers.

In other news: the games industry is a giant retard.

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On a related note, how is Double Fine Company doing ? I mean : is the partnership between them and Majesco still going on or was Psychonauts a 'one shot' thing ? Does someone know how they received the bad sells... are they waiting for the european release to move on ?

I'm tempted to send them a mail but I'm not convinced that this is the kind of mail they want to get and/or answer right now.

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Wouldn't be surprised if Majesco wasn't their publisher next time around. I don't have any real reason to think that, but it seems likely that Majesco is going to pull it in a little bit.

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Yeah, fair or not Psychonauts is now considered a pretty signifcant cause of Majesco's recent failing. Shame too, because if Tim's various interviews are anything to go by the publisher/developer relationship between Majesco and Double Fine was a very good one and Tim was hoping for a long partnership with them.

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Yeah who knows what that really means. Would God of War or GTA3 have been considered an "AAA" title if they hadn't done well/been well received? Driv3r clearly is not referred to as "AAA" by people even though it probably had the budget and production values of many allegedly "AAA" titles, because it is unpopular.

"AAA" seems like a stupid moniker that is awarded to games after they already ship and do well, which is troubling considering the number of publishers who now say they are "only interested in picking up AAA titles" from prospective developers.

In other news: the games industry is a giant retard.

Well, this doesn't affect how normal people discuss games, but at my video store when one distributor (Ingram) sends the list of upcoming games they all have a rating from A to AAA (I think I even once saw a B). I assume it's from their internal sales projections and to help the more clueless store managers do ordering. Joe-on-the-street might just make his "AAA" assessment up, but the phrase does come from reality.

(And, no, I don't remember what Psychonauts was assigned.)

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no way, man, it was too friggin expensive to share.

:shifty:

but. just one minute.

some "scans" coming up.

edit: too complicated. just try this. maybe it will work (although unlikely).

but, yeah, the project budget was $11,8 million

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Good thing:

It seems they learned a lot from developing this game

Bad thing:

Its failure may mean they might not be able to apply what they learned to other games.

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Great read.

$20 says Dougie was the inspiration for The Milkman :)

I wasn't aware that there were so much internal politics going on these past few years!

Yeah, they got rid of a whole team and no-one knew it! I'm quite surprized.

However, it really isn't as bad as other companies have had it. Ion Storm comes to mind as a company with a disasterous walk-out. Xatrix (?) too ... the guys who made Kingpin. Literally the whole team left after the game was done!

It's also quite a pity that Schafer had to do all those other jobs instead of working on the game. I get the feeling with their next game he'll take a far more "hand-on" approach to development. Actually, I just hope there is a next game!!! I get the feeling there will be, but it really can't be another 4-year in development game. DF can't afford that.

SiN

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It will be something small, it has to be. This whole seven years between games doesn't work.

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