Double Fine founder Tim Schafer told Jason Schreier for Bloomberg’s Game On newsletter (September 4, 2026, 12:00 p.m. EDT) how the studio stayed alive after Xbox spun it out. Bloomberg’s full newsletter is paywalled; this report follows Schreier’s interview as carried by IGN and other secondary coverage. Primary pointer: Bloomberg’s Double Fine / Xbox bloodbath newsletter.
Schafer’s headline line: “No one puts Double Fine out of business except for me.” He continued: “Asha’s not going to shoot my dog. I’m going to shoot it. But I’m not going to shoot it, because it’s going to do great. A lot of people want to walk the dog.” On the creative reset after the cut, he said: “You’re like, ‘Wait a second, we’re not going out like this,’… ‘But for the rest of us, it’s like a creative awakening.’” And: “This is the good fight… putting some fire back into the bellies of the team and me.”
After the spinout, Double Fine cut 23 staff — about a quarter / roughly 25% of a pre-cut roster of about 90. Schafer’s July 28 framing was that the cuts were about the studio’s survival and a size they could sustain. Later reporting put remaining headcount around 55 (GamesBeat). Do not state an exact “25%” without about/roughly/a quarter.
The studio retained its IP and catalog and is fully independent. Xbox left the IP, catalog, and a finite runway; publishing rights returned for all games. The catalog includes Psychonauts / Psychonauts 2, Brütal Legend, Keeper, Kiln, and more. Microsoft did not close Double Fine.
Timeline lock: Microsoft acquired Double Fine in 2019; the spinout landed July 6, 2026 alongside Compulsion and other moves in an Xbox restructuring wave of roughly 3,200 layoffs; Double Fine’s own layoffs followed July 28; Amnesia Fortnight 2026 Kickstarter launched August 31 with a $400,000 base goal and a $100 million stretch goal for Brütal Legend 2 — that stretch is a joke stretch goal, not a claim that the Kickstarter base funds Psychonauts 3 or a new AAA sequel. Schafer’s framing of Microsoft’s leftover money: a finite “runway, not a freeway.” Bloomberg’s interview package published September 4.
Separately, Double Fine has also announced a new PC title, Thank You Bus Driver — that announce is its own story and is not the peg of this interview piece. Do not weld the Bus Driver announce into this draft.
Related live platform coverage on RCG News: Chosen’s acquisition of SteamDB.
What this story is not claiming: an exact 25% without about/roughly/a quarter; that Microsoft closed Double Fine; a merged Bus Driver launch peg; that the Kickstarter base is Psychonauts 3 or an AAA sequel; an invented Microsoft cash deal size; or a Bloomberg byline beyond Schreier / Game On / September 4, 12:00 p.m. EDT.
