Minecraft's Creator Offers to Fund Psychonauts 2 [UPDATED]

I guess Notch does have that kind of money to just angel-fund a game he likes. Man, if this actually ends up happening, then a new era is truly upon us.

I know Minecraft made a truckload of money but it can't be enough to develop a full retail release. That said, I would have no problems with a downloadable Psychonauts game.

OoOoooh update. Make it happen!

@mracoon said:

I know Minecraft made a truckload of money but it can't be enough to develop a full retail release. That said, I would have no problems with a downloadable Psychonauts game.

Uh. Minecraft made $60,000,000 USD as of six months ago - which was several months before it was even officially released and out of beta. Even after expenses, funding the next several Mojang games, hiring a lawyer, and hiring a couple of employees -- I'm pretty sure there's "a few million" possibly available for a Psychonauts game, if Notch wants it. Not to mention, if Notch did this and they needed some more funding or it turned out the estimate was higher than he was willing to chip in entirely, his support alone would encourage someone else out there to toss in a million or two.

Remember, this isn't GTA V. It doesn't need that kind of a budget. And I don't get the impression Notch is coming at this from the perspective of demanding that his investment reap a ten-fold return.

I may hate Notch with all my heart but this might be cool.

Hurray for the kind of social mobility only capitalism offers!

If this happens, Notch will be ok in my book. But now I have to buy the original on steam. DAMN YOU!

I'd buy the shit out of Psychonauts 2. It seems a bit far-fetched, but I'm hopeful.

I'm so glad I bought several copies of Minecraft. We love you Notch!

INDIE GAME DEVELOPERS UNITE!

This is kind of weird. Cool, but weird.

@mracoon said:

I know Minecraft made a truckload of money but it can't be enough to develop a full retail release. That said, I would have no problems with a downloadable Psychonauts game.

Uh. Minecraft made $60,000,000 USD as of six months ago - which was several months before it was even officially released and out of beta. Even after expenses, funding the next several Mojang games, hiring a lawyer, and hiring a couple of employees -- I'm pretty sure there's "a few million" possibly available for a Psychonauts game, if Notch wants it. Not to mention, if Notch did this and they needed some more funding or it turned out the estimate was higher than he was willing to chip in entirely, his support alone would encourage someone else out there to toss in a million or two.

Remember, this isn't GTA V. It doesn't need that kind of a budget. And I don't get the impression Notch is coming at this from the perspective of demanding that his investment reap a ten-fold return.

This is the most random bit of news I've seen in a long time. If you had told me that my purchase of beta Minecraft two years back would eventually fund Psychonauts 2, I would have told you that you were crazy.

Kudos to Notch for being that millionaire who throws his money around to make his true dream game.

Yay!

If Notch really was willing to do this, it would be cool of him to use the money he's made off of Minecraft to help make great games that can't get funding through the studio system. Hopefully, game players would then reward this by buying Psychonauts 2.

@mracoon said:

@Branthog said:

@mracoon said:

I know Minecraft made a truckload of money but it can't be enough to develop a full retail release. That said, I would have no problems with a downloadable Psychonauts game.

Uh. Minecraft made $60,000,000 USD as of six months ago - which was several months before it was even officially released and out of beta. Even after expenses, funding the next several Mojang games, hiring a lawyer, and hiring a couple of employees -- I'm pretty sure there's "a few million" possibly available for a Psychonauts game, if Notch wants it. Not to mention, if Notch did this and they needed some more funding or it turned out the estimate was higher than he was willing to chip in entirely, his support alone would encourage someone else out there to toss in a million or two.

Remember, this isn't GTA V. It doesn't need that kind of a budget. And I don't get the impression Notch is coming at this from the perspective of demanding that his investment reap a ten-fold return.

Yeah, but a proper console game (not XBLA/PSN) must cost like at least $10mil to develop and I'm not sure Notch would be willing to give that away. Also, that figure is all revenue and doesn't take into account taxes, overheads and whatnot. Notch needs money to develop his own games too! I agree with your last point that Mojang could kickstart development before a bigger investor came in.

The average game costs around $20m to develop today (and about $5m six years ago and about a million a decade ago), but that doesn't mean much when those numbers are being thrown off by very large companies producing titles that are over $100m.

I'm almost certain it is feasible to make a game the scope and size of another Psychonauts without the requirements of a massive studio, a traditional publisher, and all the other middlemen for "a few million" (which is the non-specific number that Schafer has thrown around). They'd need about $20k for the license fees to develop for both consoles (combined) and though they'd have to do some marketing, a ton of it would already be done by the reputation of the game, the developers, and the story surrounding how it came to be.

Notch has some idea of the cost of making a game, both through Minecraft and his company and the former companies he worked for, developing games (though, sure, not on the same scale). However, if he could pony-up four or five million, I'm sure Schafer could find another investor or partner of some sort to foot another couple or so million. In the end, you're still talking about a fairly small game with a fairly small (50ish at Double Fine?) studio and you're not talking a game with the same kind of production and acting demands as an Uncharted.

Edited to add that I'm just pulling guesses out of my ass, here, but I think they're pretty reasonable. Though the numbers in my first paragraph are actual numbers. I mean, they're actual averages of cost to develop a game now. Obviously they're "numbers". :)

Right on. And if they can find a way to get LucasArts to re-release/update Grim Fandango, I'll jizz in my pants hard enough to fill the Mariana Trench.

The idea alone makes me happy. I greatly respect Notch as it is, his game is extraordinary and I'm really glad it's been so successful for him. I notice his name near the top of the Humble Bundle purchases most of the time too.

I already own Psychonauts twice, and a sequel would be interesting to say the least. Hell, I'd buy it; if Notch helps fund development and makes his money back that'd make a great story.

HOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYASHITHOLYSHIT!!!!

@Superfriend said:

@Masha2932 said:

@BitterAlmond said:

@Maajin said:

@Superfriend said:

I can already hear Michel Ancel knocking on Notch´s door next week.

Michel Ancel doesn't need money for his projects, he needs a publisher who doesn't fucking releases his whimsical games the same day as every triple-A in the planet.

Truth.

I agree. Michael Ancel needs a more supportive publisher.

Like Mojang/Notch? I honestly see some potential in this. Dude who has money to spend and is willing to support a cause he believes in lets creative genius work on the game he wants to make.

As long as Notch doesn´t expect something like this to do CoD numbers, it´s a win-win situation.

It's not that Notch/Mojang would be a bad publisher, just that Ancel already has a deal with Ubisoft. Ubi ought to plan its release dates with a bit more thought.

Man, the last thing I want is that minecraft douche to mess with Double Fine...

@vinsanityv22: Then worry not, Notch has said he fully intends to let Double Fine do their own thing.

Now If I had the money Id fund a brutal legend sequel.

@coolvee said:

And with Notch and his access to half a million followers on twitter, Psychonauts 2 would have an infinitely better marketing campaign just from his twitter feed alone and would outsell Psychonauts 1 easily.

This is an important point I think and one both Double Fine and Notch himself might well be aware in terms of thinking about making back their money on this game.

As some have said, this whole sitatuion is really just so cool and special.

this is the proof atheists have been looking for that God exists

Hey whether this happens or not, I'm just happy that people are talking about the game again.

Well Notch may now officially be the coolest dude in gaming. Jeff and Vinny don't count they just cover it.

@dezvous said:

We live in an awesome world. I don't say this necessarily excited for a Psychonauts 2. I have to admit I've never played the original but I feel like I really should. How is the PC version?

The game's great, the PC version is great. You really should play it. The game was actually on sale a couple of days ago. You can find it on both Steam and GOG.

I dont know if i want Tim to answer to that Asshole

and indie developer becoming a publisher 0____o

if this works out if the game comes out and if its a succes tim schaefer will finally get the recognition he deserves

and notch well he becomes richer which leads to more innovative titles.

:) im sorry but if this does take off it would be so awesome

this seems crazy

@Dagbiker said:

I dont know if i want Tim to answer to that Asshole

It is a rather jerk move to hand out free copies of your game over Twitter and solicit funding without expecting feedback opportunities.

@SerHulse said:

@Oldirtybearon said:

@GioVANNI said:

@Oldirtybearon said:

@Metal_Gear_Sunny said:

@AURON570 said:

Did you really have to link to EVERY freaking tweet?

Do you get mad when people cite their sources on Wikipedia, too?

You're not supposed to do that, I don't think. There's some kind of policy in education that sourcing from Wikipedia is a big no-no.

I think he means citing your source on Wikipedia. Like posting something on Wikipedia and then citing the source of what you posted on Wikipedia.

But... who would do that? That's just fucking stupid.

I'm not sure you are entirely grasping what's being said here, he means,

If you are making a claim, statement or quoting something, you should cite where it came from, it's good practice, he doesn't mean literally linking to a Wikipedia page.

For example:

"Person X said this: 'blah blah blah' on Twitter yesterday"

*cue link to actual tweet*

(for proof mainly, and for others to verify any facts or to see the evidence first hand to draw their own conclusions, basically it's very important)

Yes, that was the message I tried to get across.

I just started playing through Psychonauts on Steam before all of this happened, you should all do the same, the Steam version is great. They redid a lot of the ingame textures and fixed some bugs that never got fixed in the final console versions.

this would be pretty amazing if it actually happens.

WHAT

@ptc: Great idea. I'd like it if they did a HD release of the first game with achievements as well. My laptop sucks, so I don't want to get the PC version and I really don't want to have to buy the Xbox Original for $15.

Psychonauts is probably among my top 3 favourite games of all time. Calling me 'pumped' to see how this plays out is a grave understatement.

I've never played Psychonauts so I seem to be tempted to spend yet another load of monies on Steam. Supporting Double Fine whilst simultaneously encouraging a new Psychonauts and ALSO giving Valve some pocket change?...sold.

I hope Brad Mier didnt get in trouble because of what he said on Giant Bomb, and hope he can come back.

crazyness

This just reeks of a mincraft dream world in psychonauts 2. God damn I want this game.

Good scoop Patrick.

I liked Psychonauts so I hope it gets made. It was one of the first funny games I played.

@SeriouslyNow said:

@evilalfie said:

Good scoop Patrick.

Patrick didn't scoop this. It's been floating around for a couple of days.

It happened this morning.

@SeriouslyNow said:

@evilalfie said:

Good scoop Patrick.

Patrick didn't scoop this. It's been floating around for a couple of days.

It happened this morning.

OH GOD PLEASE MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Wait, why do people hate Notch?

The only thing I can guess is "Sour Grapes".

@Jumbs said:

Wait, why do people hate Notch?

The only thing I can guess is "Sour Grapes".

He just rubs me the wrong way. He made a joke on twitter saying something about "giving the n*****s the right to vote." And him slinging insults and baseless accusations around about the Yogscast further soured me on him as a person. He also doesn't come across as someone who is very business savvy, minecraft riches aside. I respect him for finding success from his own hard work and making a game that thousands, myself included, enjoy, but I sometimes get the impression that he lets that success affect his ego.