Double Fine: News sometime this month!

[brkl]

Man, Schafer doesn't need the IP. When Brutal Legend is out, he'll dig into that imagination of his and do something new.

[Nappi]

It's up! (But there really isn't anything interesting yet.)

[thorn]

It's EA!!!

Holy crap (looks like some techie tipped their hand early!). This is GREAT NEWS! Why? Because THIS COMPANY will actually spend money advertising Brutal Legend!!!

I dunno... You ever hear about the Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath fiasco?

I am worried.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Please explain.

[Scrobbs]

EG have uploaded an interview in about the last 5 minutes.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=336659

[Salka]

This is one of the first non-shit things to happen in months! No longer is suicide the only option, thanks to

EA.

BTW why are we spoiler taggsing? ¬¬

[brkl]

They tend to spoil things.

[Salka]

I dunno... You ever hear about the Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath fiasco?

I am worried.

I also would like hear about this, I have heard nothing of such a fiasco...

[ThunderPeel2001]

BTW why are we spoiler taggsing? ¬¬

I don't know

[syntheticgerbil]

I also would like hear about this, I have heard nothing of such a fiasco...

I think they just simply didn't advertise the game beyond making a website for it. It was quietly released and no one cared, bought the game, or even knew about it despite all around good reviews. Then Oddworld Inhabitants went out of business, pissed at EA. Is this right, guys?

To be fair, I can see Oddworld Stranger's Wrath as much less appealing than the Oddworld games before just because it introduced new characters, no matter who liked or disliked the new gameplay mechanics.

So who knows what EA will do with another niche game not developed by them and starring a new cast of characters? There's not even brand recognition in Brutal Legend beyond Jack Black starring.

[ThunderPeel2001]

That was five years ago, thankfully.

I like this:

Hey, I would like to dimiss any fears people have about Brutal Legend being picked up by EA. In all honesty it is a GREAT thing. For those of who have not been following the development side of games for a while, I would like to note that EA has changed for the better, of not for the AMAZING, in the last two or three years. You see, Activision, has now taking up that hold throne of evil, built on the corpses of employees, wherein EA now tries to cultivate creativity and new ideas, ie Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space.

Also, there is something that EA has made called EA Partners, this is what Brutal Legend is under. What does this mean? It means that Double Fine will have pretty much complete creative control, ALONG WITH, any EA assets that wish to use from. Which includes publishing. And of course, with EA Partners, Double Fine would still own all rights to their games. No Psychonauts cellphones games... which... would be kinda cool actually.

ANYWAY thats all I wanted to say. Be happy its EA, folks. It’s gonna be a great ride.

Could this be perfect timing for Double Fine now that EA are shedding their evil skin? It can't be worse than Majesco!

[Chris]

So who knows what EA will do with another niche game not developed by them and starring a new cast of characters? There's not even brand recognition in Brutal Legend beyond Jack Black starring.

Hopefully the same stuff they do with the rest of EA Partners' lineup, which has been awesome with only very few exceptions.

[Jake]

Yeah.. the EA Partners setup seems like a very different relationship structure to have with 3rd party developers than they had in the past.

[syntheticgerbil]

Well, I haven't really been keeping up, but I hope for the best.

[Marek]

I dunno... You ever hear about the Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath fiasco?

I am worried.

If memory serves me correctly, that was arranged at the very last minute after another publisher dropped it. Also that was before EA Partners was established, the 3rd party dev publishing department that is being praised by everyone now.

[Chris]

If memory serves me correctly, that was arranged at the very last minute after another publisher dropped it. Also that was before EA Partners was established, the 3rd party dev publishing department that is being praised by everyone now.

Technically Stranger's Wrath was EA Partners, but it was an earlier incarnation of the program and before it had as defined a structure and goal as it does now.

[thorn]

Please explain.

Oddworld Inhabitants were with Microsoft Game Studios before the cull that also hit Psychonauts. They jumped at the first offer, which was from EA, who wanted a PS2 port of the game. However, when they realised that the PS2 port would not be ready for a few months after the Xbox release date, they dropped the port and gave no advertising at all to the Xbox version. Their logic, I suppose, was that console-exclusive games aren't worth spending the money on. Which was a shame, as Stranger's Wrath was a bloody awesome game that would have hooked in lots of new fans to the company. And... as a hardcore OW fan, I don't forgive easily.

I feel slightly reassured by the posts other people have made about the partner program. But I will retain my overall state of worriedness for now.

Edited December 13, 2008 by thorn

[Udvarnoky]

Given everything that's happened to them over the course of their near ten-year existence, I don't know whether Double Fine is ridiculously cursed or ridiculously lucky.

[Chris]

Given everything that's happened to them over the course of their near ten-year existence, I don't know whether Double Fine is ridiculously cursed or ridiculously lucky.

On balance, I would say more lucky than cursed.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Actually, it's odd to say, but EA Partners is responsible for some damn cool titles lately: Left4Dead, Rock Band, Mirror's Edge, the Orange Box, Dead Space. Crysis...

(Also: Is just me, or is creativity in games having a bit of a renaissance at the moment?)

[netmonkey]

Did anyone notice that there is now a Psychopedia as the official Double Fine psychonauts page?

http://www.doublefine.com/news.php/psycho-pedia

[thorn]

Oh, that is awesome. All of the profiles that Tim used to create the characters are now on myspace. Brilliant.

[Marek]

Whoa, link? (I'm lazy)

[thorn]

Go to the link on Netmonkey's post. Go to the camper's page, go to the specific camper and then click on the myspace link. There's no one list of the all of the myspace pages and not all the characters are friends with all the others, so that list is the best place to look.

Just finished reading them. Absolutely hilarious, with a tinge of horrificness when Clem and Crystal drop by.

[netmonkey]

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/43623.html

New trailer. In hi-quality.