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Double Fine confirms it owns all its games’ IP and publishing rights after Xbox split
Double Fine has confirmed it retains ownership of the intellectual property and publishing rights to all the games it made during its seven years under Microsoft's Xbox division, following the studio's split from the company earlier this year. CEO Tim Schafer clarified the situation on Kinda Funny Games, explaining that IP and publishing rights had transferred back to Double Fine, though he noted a few titles were still going through the process of reverting from Xbox.
Schafer confirmed that purchases of Double Fine's back catalogue, including Psychonauts 2, Keeper and Kiln, now directly benefit the studio financially. He also announced Double Fine will revive its Amnesia Fortnight game jam as a Kickstarter campaign, running from 31st August into September, with backers voting on which prototype becomes the studio's next full project. The move follows Xbox's wider restructuring in July, announced by CEO Asha Sharma, which affected around 3,200 roles and saw studios including Double Fine and Compulsion Games spun out independently while keeping their IP; Double Fine itself cut roughly a quarter of its 90-person team during the transition.
In short
- Double Fine now owns IP and publishing rights to its Xbox-era games
- Studio confirms game sales now directly fund its operations
- Amnesia Fortnight game jam returns as a Kickstarter campaign in September
Explained simply
Double Fine is an independent video game studio best known for games such as Psychonauts. It spent seven years as part of Microsoft’s Xbox division, where Xbox helped publish games the studio developed.
A game’s intellectual property, or IP, includes rights to its characters and fictional world; publishing rights cover releasing and selling it. Double Fine says those rights for its games are returning to the studio, although a few transfers are still being completed.
Who owns these rights can affect who earns money when games are sold and who can decide how they are published or developed in future. The change follows a wider Xbox restructuring that led some studios to become independent, alongside job cuts at Double Fine.