Schafer: Publishers 'Don't See Enough Financial Reward' In DoubleFine PC Ports

25 Nov 2010 at 20:31:58 by Peter Parrish

In a story being picked up everywhere today, Double Fine's Tim Schafer has used the developer's FAQ to comment on the recent dearth of PC ports of his games.

"We have much of the technology in place to produce PC versions of all these games, but there is still some more work required to make them shippable and that costs money," Schafer writes. "So far, our publishers have not elected to fund that work. Not because they hate PC Gamers, but because they don't see enough financial reward."

This suggests EA (Brutal Legend) and THQ (Costume Quest, Stacking) are the ones who could make the PC versions happen, but have as yet chosen not to. In the case of THQ this seems especially odd, as the company tends to include the PC as a release platform fairly often. It also seems baffling that, at some level, an assessment has been made that sensibly priced, downloadable titles from Double Fine wouldn't sell on the PC. Speaking personally, they seem perfect for the platform.

It's also worth noting that although this story has received widespread coverage today, it's difficult to pinpoint how long the relevant passage has actually been present on Double Fine's site. Although it mentions the recently-announced Stacking, that could easily have been added to a previously-existing paragraph.

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