Double Fine Has Acquired All Of Its IPs And Publishing Rights From Microsoft

Double Fine is officially free of Microsoft, and its founder wants players to know exactly what that means for their wallets.

Schafer Confirms The Ownership Is Real

Speaking on Kinda Funny Games Daily, Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer addressed fan questions about whether the studio still profits from games it made while owned by Microsoft, including Psychonauts 2, Keeper, and Kiln. His answer was direct:

Everything, we got back, the transfer of the IP came back to us. All, we have the publishing rights back to our games.”

He noted some storefronts may still display Microsoft as the publisher of record, but that’s just a processing delay rather than a sign the rights haven’t actually transferred. “It still says ‘Microsoft’ on some of them, but it just takes a while for it all to process. When people buy our games, it supports the studio.”

Double Fine was acquired by Microsoft in 2019 and spent seven years under the Xbox umbrella before being spun back out as part of a broader restructuring announced in early July, one that also cut roughly 3,200 jobs across Xbox’s studios and affected Compulsion Games, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s memo at the time explicitly stated that Double Fine and Compulsion Games would return to independent management with their IP, catalog, and financial runway intact, terms both studios have now confirmed in practice.

Why This Outcome Is Unusual

Studios that separate from a publisher, whether the split is friendly or not, typically leave without their catalog attached. The acquiring company paid for the rights, and legally, the games belong to them going forward. That Double Fine and Compulsion Games both walked away with full ownership intact, catalog and all, is a genuinely rare outcome in this kind of corporate divestiture, and it matters beyond sentiment.

A newly independent studio pitching investors with Psychonauts, a franchise with a built-in fanbase and a recent sequel, attached to its portfolio is in a fundamentally stronger negotiating position than one walking in with just a concept and a team.

Double Fine isn’t wasting the fresh start either. Alongside confirming the ownership situation, Schafer announced the studio is reviving its Amnesia Fortnight game jam as a Kickstarter-backed event running from August 31 through most of September, letting fans help fund and vote on what the newly independent studio builds next.