Double Fine launches Amnesia Fortnight crowdfunding campaign after Xbox split
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Double Fine has confirmed its next project following its split from Microsoft, launching a crowdfunded revival of its Amnesia Fortnight game jam series. Studio founder Tim Schafer announced the plan on the Kinda Funny podcast, with a Kickstarter campaign titled "Amnesia Fortnight 2026 – Indie Reboot" set to run from 31 August through September. The move marks the studio's first major public step since becoming independent of Xbox, and a return to the crowdfunding approach that shaped its identity before Microsoft acquired it in 2019.
Backers will choose which game concepts are developed into four prototypes, then vote on which one is turned into a full small game, with documentary team 2 Player Productions filming the process for a new film. Double Fine has periodically run Amnesia Fortnight since 2012, previously producing titles including Costume Quest, Spacebase DK-9 and Headlander from the format. The campaign follows a difficult period for the studio, which was swept up in Xbox's wave of layoffs and divestments last month and subsequently cut 23 of its roughly 90 staff, with Schafer describing the layoffs as necessary for the studio's survival.
- Double Fine launches Kickstarter for Amnesia Fortnight 2026 on 31 August
- Backers pick prototypes and vote on final small game
- Follows split from Microsoft and loss of 23 staff
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Double Fine Productions is a video games studio best known for quirky titles such as Psychonauts and Broken Age. It was bought by Microsoft in 2019 and became part of the Xbox division, but has now been separated from Microsoft as part of a wider restructuring at Xbox, during which the roughly 90-person studio lost 23 staff. Having left Microsoft's ownership, Double Fine is once again operating as an independent company.
Amnesia Fortnight is Double Fine's long-running internal game jam, where small teams inside the studio pitch and build short prototype games in a fixed period, with the results later shared with the public. Before joining Microsoft, the studio funded projects such as Broken Age and Psychonauts 2 through public crowdfunding on Kickstarter, letting fans back development directly in exchange for a say in the process and behind-the-scenes access.
The new campaign matters because it shows Double Fine returning to the crowdfunding model it relied on before its Xbox years, now that it is independent again. It also gives an early signal of how the studio plans to sustain itself financially outside a major publisher's backing.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of the crowdfunding approach see it as a genuine return to the model that made Double Fine distinctive: creative freedom for the studio and meaningful influence for fans, who get to vote on which concepts become prototypes and which of those become finished games. Given the studio's prior track record with Broken Age and Psychonauts 2, backers may reasonably trust that their support translates into tangible, well-crafted results, and the accompanying documentary offers an unusually transparent window into the creative process. For a studio newly independent from a large publisher, this model can be seen as a healthy reclaiming of autonomy rather than a step backwards.
The case against
Others may view the timing with unease, questioning whether it is appropriate to ask fans to shoulder financial risk so soon after the studio laid off 23 staff during its separation from Microsoft. From this perspective, crowdfunding can look less like an empowering creative choice and more like a signal of underlying financial fragility, with the burden of funding experimental projects shifted from corporate backing onto the goodwill of the community. Sceptics of the crowdfunding model more broadly also note that such campaigns, even from studios with strong reputations, carry inherent uncertainty about delivery timelines and final scope, which backers accept as a risk rather than a guarantee.
More coverage
- Push Square — Psychonauts Dev Double Fine Will Let You Decide What Game It Makes Next
- GamesRadar+ — Free from Xbox, Double Fine returns to Kickstarter to ask fans what its next "small" game should be
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Originally published by Polygon as “Psychonauts Developer Double Fine Reveals Post-Xbox Comeback Plan”.