{"id":14050,"date":"2026-09-11T16:36:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T13:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=14050"},"modified":"2026-09-12T05:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:39:16","slug":"i-really-want-game-pass-to-work-after-navigating-the-xbox-reset-double-fine-boss-tim-schafer-is-indie-once-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/09\/11\/i-really-want-game-pass-to-work-after-navigating-the-xbox-reset-double-fine-boss-tim-schafer-is-indie-once-again\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I Really Want Game Pass to Work&#8217; \u2014 After Navigating the Xbox &#8216;Reset,&#8217; Double Fine Boss Tim Schafer Is Indie Once Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">It&#8217;s only been a few months since developer Double Fine&#8217;s split from Microsoft, but the team behind Psychonauts 2, Kiln, and Keeper is looking ahead. With another successful Kickstarter campaign under its belt, the newly independent studio&#8217;s second (or should that be third?) life as an indie is off to an optimistic start. With the current Kickstarter focusing on the developer&#8217;s latest Amenesia Fortnight \u2014 a developer-run game jam where new micro games are produced \u2014 it&#8217;s allowing the developers to build up some much-needed runway as they plan for their next major project.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">At PAX West 2026, we spoke with Double Fine studio head and president, Tim Schafer, about the developer&#8217;s current path forward. Along with talking about his return to independence following the biggest restructure in Xbox history, Schafer reflected on Double Fine&#8217;s years under Microsoft&#8217;s banner, and explained how Game Pass can still potentially work as a subscription service. He also reaffirmed his commitment to making Brutal Legend 2 (provided someone can front the money for it).<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>IGN: It&#8217;s been seven years since the Microsoft acquisition, and the game industry has gone through so much change. What&#8217;s it been like to return to being an independent developer?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>Tim Schafer: <\/strong>It&#8217;s been exhilarating. Like, it&#8217;s scary because we&#8217;ve got to make our own way in the world, but we did that for 19 years before Microsoft, so we have a lot of great ideas and a lot of experience pitching them. A lot of people know it&#8217;s a tough time out there. A lot of people, and now especially a lot of the older developers, are gone. A lot of the old avenues we used for funding are gone, but there are a lot of new ones. So we&#8217;re just putting ourselves out there, meeting a lot of new people, and talking about who wants to make games with us.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">The 100 Best Xbox Games of All Time<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\">&lt;img alt=&quot;What is an Xbox? Microsoft has spent 25 years trying to answer the question, but for fans, the answer is easy: \u201cXbox\u201d evokes one-eared headsets wired into the memory card slots of massive controllers with breakaway cords. A dashboard with gleaming skeuomorphic blades and avatars adorned in earned accessories. That sound that plays when a hard-earned Achievement finally pops. \u201cXbox\u201d means heavy-duty hardware. Tactile sensations. Friends connecting for the first time. And that\u2019s before we even get to the games.<\/p>\n<p>It may be that the very idea of an Xbox game is coming to an end. Microsoft has undeniably shifted its tactics, with a new focus on multi-platform releases, handheld Xboxes that are actually miniature Windows computers, and the potential that future Xbox consoles may simply be gaming PCs. So now seems as good a time as any to look back at the entire history of Microsoft\u2019s console journey and rank the best Xbox games, with help from our friends at Outside Xbox, the multimillion-subscriber channel that serves up weekly videos about video games and video game-adjacent things<\/p>\n<p>When we say \u201cthe best Xbox games,\u201d we mean the ones that most evoke that weighty sense of \u201cXboxness.\u201d Some are first-party, most are exclusives, and all of them are indelibly tied to the legacy of and fondness for a platform that\u2019s left a massive mark on gaming. These are the 100 Best Xbox Games of All Time. We&#8217;ll be updating this list daily with 25 games at 7am PST\/10am ET\/3pm GMT from Tuesday, 20th January to Friday, 23rd January, until number one is revealed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; decoding=&#8221;async&#8221; class=&#8221;progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity&#8221; loading=&#8221;lazy&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/i-really-want-game-pass-to-work-after-navigating-the-xbox-reset-double-fine-boss-tim-schafer-is-indie-once-again.gif&#8221; data-cy=&#8221;progressive-image&#8221;&gt;<span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>IGN: I think what&#8217;s been great to see with Double Fine is that it has a core audience of players that are invested in seeing the studio thrive. I remember the original Kickstarter campaign for Broken Age was a big breakthrough for Double Fine.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>Schafer: <\/strong>Yeah, I mean that sort of thing was quite like a big financial impact, but it was also an awakening of just how tight we are with the community, like how dependent we are on them, and how much they&#8217;re willing to participate. You know what I mean? Because they participate financially, but also creatively. Like, they really want to make art as well. I feel like that&#8217;s something special about our fans, and it&#8217;s because our number one thing is creativity. So I think it breeds a fan who also likes creativity, and I think it, hopefully, helps our games inspire not just players, but people to like learning to draw or program, or, you know, people who want to know how to make a game.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>IGN: Now that you are an independent developer again, and with all this attention on you, do you feel there&#8217;s a certain responsibility placed on you all to make it as an indie studio?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>Schafer: <\/strong>I don&#8217;t see it as a responsibility. I mean, I don&#8217;t expect anybody to look at us and know what to do, because our situation always feels really unique to Double Fine and me. Like we&#8217;re an indie game studio, but we have a lot of employees, and we have healthcare, and we have a lot of stuff like that. There&#8217;s not a lot of companies our size anymore, like AA-size studios, kind of. So, I wouldn&#8217;t say do everything that we do. I hope no one&#8217;s following our example because I don&#8217;t know if it works for anyone but us.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>IGN: The Kickstarter for the Amnesia Fortnight is an interesting way to start this comeback, it&#8217;s all about this big push to produce some new ideas and bring to life.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>Schafer: <\/strong>It&#8217;s kind of like a celebration of what we can do now that was harder to do before. Even being at PAX, Microsoft usually likes to have one big booth. So having little booths all over is not what they&#8217;re into. They&#8217;re not even here at the show. So being independent, we can come to PAX, we can talk to the fans, we can set the prices of our games. We can do tiny games like Thank You Bus Driver, which is a new project for us, and we made a whole special label for them called Double Fine Action Labs, where we can release smaller ideas, do game jams, and do the kind of things we like to do. So it&#8217;s a celebration of both what we can do and what we like to do, which is high-bandwidth interaction with the fans, doing silly creative things, and just having a lot of fun.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>IGN: I would be remiss not to say that a lot of people took notice of the Kickstarter mentioning that Brutal Legend 2 can be made if you secure $100 million. I understand it was meant as a joke\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>Schafer: <\/strong>I mean, it was a joke, but also, it&#8217;s not a joke. Sure, I mean, if we got $100 million, we would do it for sure. I would happily put everything aside and make Brutal Legend 2, as long as I could talk Jack Black into it. Yeah, but if we got $100 million, that&#8217;s great. Yeah, I could do a demo for $100 [<em>laughs<\/em>]. But it&#8217;s not a joke \u2014 I would do it if we hit that goal. We&#8217;re probably not going to hit that, though. But any rich guys out there, if you ever want to see Brutal Legend 2, come help us out.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>IGN: Now that you&#8217;re back as an independent developer, how do you feel about those seven years working under Microsoft? Would you say that it was a valuable experience in the end?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>Schafer: <\/strong>I learned a lot from it, and it was a really great experience overall. They invested a lot in the company, and their mission was to support Game Pass and other projects. So for a while, we were very closely aligned, and it was great. It was a great partnership, and then their goals changed, and so we parted ways because of that.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">But I feel like, in the meantime, we had a great little collection of studios within Xbox Game Studios, like Compulsion, Ninja Theory, Obsidian, and inXile. We got to meet all the studio heads and talk to them, and our programmers got to talk. Their programmers are artists, and everyone was exchanging ideas and technology, and it was really a great learning experience about how other companies are run. So, because you&#8217;re independent, you&#8217;re a little more like an island. So, being an island that was temporarily pushed, hitched up to a bunch of other islands was very much, &#8220;Oh, that&#8217;s a cool game right there, we could go play that game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"null\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/i-really-want-game-pass-to-work-after-navigating-the-xbox-reset-double-fine-boss-tim-schafer-is-indie-once-again.gif\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\"> (L-R) Tim Schafer, Feargus Urquhart, Dom Matthews, Matt Booty, and Larry Hryb at the Xbox Game Studios &#8211; One Year Later panel during E3 2019. Photo by Charley Gallay\/Getty Images for E3\/Entertainment Software Association.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>IGN: Game Pass was such a big part of the Xbox brand&#8217;s push for a larger games audience. Do you feel that Game Pass still has value and potential as a service?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>Schafer: <\/strong>I really want Game Pass to work. I like the idea of subscription models for companies like us, who, you know, lower the barrier to entry for everyone. We want to make games that are weird and creative, that you might not understand at first. I think that&#8217;s the kind of stuff we like to do. Do people see the key art and go like, &#8220;What?&#8221; And if it&#8217;s on a subscription, you&#8217;ve already kind of paid for the game. You&#8217;d be more likely to try it, so that sounds good.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">But there are other ways to reach people like that, like lowering your prices, for example. You know, getting people to try your games like that. I think it could have worked. I don&#8217;t understand why Netflix worked and Game Pass didn&#8217;t, and I think that&#8217;s something I just don&#8217;t know enough about, but that&#8217;s the way it is. So now we&#8217;re taking another approach: making it really affordable.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>IGN: It&#8217;s been interesting to see the rise of these micro-games, ones that are fairly modest in concept, but offer variety and fun for groups of players. I know the term &#8220;friendslop&#8221; is used a lot, but I kind of see some of Double Fine&#8217;s games, and experimental ones, being right at home with those styles of games \u2013 particularly Kiln.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>Schafer: <\/strong>Yeah, I think the difference is multiplayer. We have built a ton of multiplayer, but the thing about those games kind of aligns with what we&#8217;re doing with our Amnesia Fortnight, which is just trying stuff. A lot of those games came from game jams. I think the game Peak came from a game jam, and we just want to give everyone in the company a chance. Really, people feel safe to experiment and try creative ideas, and then to not spend $300 million on them, just spend like sticky bus drivers for six weeks, put it out there, and just see what you know.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The thing about those &#8216;friendslop&#8217; games, people mostly focus on successes, but there&#8217;s tons of them that don&#8217;t work out. I think the idea is that you never know which one&#8217;s going to take off, so don&#8217;t bank the future of your company on any one individual idea for sure. But these games were called &#8220;friendjank&#8221; for awhile, you remember that? It&#8217;s also about casual pacing, it&#8217;s basically games where it&#8217;s mostly about hanging out with your friends.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"tierlist-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" id=\"xbox-games-series-tier-list\" data-cy=\"xbox-games-series-tier-list\">\n<div class=\"card jsx-2310533475 jsx-1355461925 box\"><span class=\"stack jsx-3547261442 jsx-2986308351\"><span class=\"stack jsx-2959124702 jsx-4269505506 TierListHeader_header__xyy5a\"><span class=\"stack jsx-3647836811 jsx-4269505506 TierListHeader_title__UxzQx\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ign-icon icon-tier-list jsx-2750866048 jsx-1879929830\" role=\"img\" aria-hidden=\"false\" data-cy=\"icon-tier-list\" alt=\"Tier List\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/TierList.c19f1c86.svg?cors=0\"><\/p>\n<h3 data-cy=\"title3\" class=\"title3 jsx-12333944 jsx-2321054750 TierListHeader_full__J6p2u\">Xbox Games Series Tier List<\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-957202555 TierListHeader_compact__7JWp1 balanced\">Xbox Games Series Tier List<\/h3>\n<p><\/span><\/span><span class=\"stack jsx-3547261442\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>IGN: What are your thoughts on the state of the industry now? There&#8217;s been a lot of reports and stories of developers struggling to stay open and some creatives having to leave the field. Do you feel optimistic that things can improve?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>Schafer: <\/strong>It&#8217;s a shitty time out there, and it&#8217;s been getting worse for longer than I&#8217;ve ever seen it get worse. I usually try to comfort people by saying to the team, &#8220;Well, there are cycles, there are downturns, but it always turns back up again because you need people to make games, and that comes and goes.&#8221; But this has been going on for at least four years, and I feel like I&#8217;ve never seen a cycle plunge so low.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Is it a permanent change in just the economics of it all? But people are still needed to make games. It&#8217;s not like AI has replaced everybody, and for all the talk about it replacing Google, it&#8217;s not effectively replacing anybody right now. So where are all those jobs going? I still see a bunch of games getting made, and people are still needed. So I wish I were smarter and knew the answer to that. But it seems like you need people to make games, and so there should be a ton of opportunities, and they&#8217;re still making a lot of money.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">For creatives, you have to have fun making games because they&#8217;re really hard to make. A lot of these people could make more than money in a tech company, so they&#8217;re here because they love games. And if you&#8217;re here because you love games, then you should love what you&#8217;re doing, love making games, and have fun.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Photo by Christian Petersen\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/i-really-want-game-pass-to-work-after-navigating-the-xbox-reset-double-fine-boss-tim-schafer-is-indie-once-again.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/i-really-want-game-pass-to-work-after-navigating-the-xbox-reset-double-fine-boss-tim-schafer-is-indie-once-again.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/i-really-want-game-pass-to-work-after-navigating-the-xbox-reset-double-fine-boss-tim-schafer-is-indie-once-again.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/i-really-want-game-pass-to-work-after-navigating-the-xbox-reset-double-fine-boss-tim-schafer-is-indie-once-again.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[60,50],"class_list":["post-14050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-49","tag-awakening","tag-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14052,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14050\/revisions\/14052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}