![]() ![]() ![]() Taking advantage of Psychonauts ever growing cult popularity, Humble Bundle V – according to Schafer in a Reddit AMA – sold more in the first few hours than Psychonauts ever did on release. Quickly following the update, as a result of Double Fine’s newly found publishing autonomy, they allowed Psychonauts a place in a Humble Bundle in 2012. The update added in cloud support, achievements, and a few updates to gameplay to make infamous difficulty spikes less challenging. In 2011 the publishing deal for Psychonauts with Majesco expired, and fell wholly back to Double Fine, at which point they re-released an updated version of the game for Steam, Windows, and Mac devices. In fact even the lower scored reviews of Psychonauts acknowledged that if not for bugs and inherent problems borne of the platforming genre – difficulty spikes, pacing issues, etc – it would be an excellent game. “Psychonauts doesn’t reinvent the platformer, but it still delivers an experience that feels wholly original in every aspect of its execution.” ![]() Psychonauts is mind-blowing, however it’s tricky at times and definitely not for kids.”Īnd Gamespot rounds out the positive reception with: “Inspired, delightful and at times bordering on the insane. GamesRadar added to the praise with the following: “It’s so goofilfy hilarious, you may just find yourself a wisecrack away from peeing in your Jockeys.” Many of the reviews listed there are no longer accessible as a result of old websites, archived resources, and a number of other factors because it was – gulp – 16 years ago, but PC Gamer said: Psychonauts reviewed well also, and the PC version of the 2005 game currently sits at 87/100. It was included in the book “1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die”, at number 672 – just before the original Shadow of The Colossus. It won “Best Original Game” at E3 2005, “Best Screenplay” at the British Academy Video Games Awards 2006, and was nominated or awarded GOTY for many individual publications. In line with Schafer’s successes at LucasArts, it’s not really a surprise that Psychonauts was received so well by critics, despite the surprisingly low sales. The latter specifically is known as a shining example of the point and click adventure genre, and is widely regarded as one of the best games of all time. Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, and The Secret of Monkey Island, to name a few. Majesco still exists to this day, although their ventures into big-name gaming licenses and studios are long over.Īt LucasArts, Tim Schafer was a designer on multiple well received and now well regarded video games. But Psychonauts, despite early estimations and the undeniable pedigree of Tim Schafer, was not quite the nest egg that Majesco predicted and it failed to subsidise their other ventures in the gaming space. Of course that’s not entirely on Psychonauts and Double Fine, as Majesco were throwing money at multiple big budget licensed games like Aeon Flux and Taxi Driver – one of which bombed and the other of which was cancelled. “”As a result of the general weakness in the sector along with the rising costs of development and marketing next-generation games, we have concluded that Majesco’s current resources do not allow us to effectively compete in the big budget console game marketplace,” They recorded an 18 million loss, their CEO resigned, and Majesco withdrew from the space almost entirely stating that: It sold low enough on release that Majesco, the publisher for Psychonauts, reversed their previous statements regarding Psychnauts’ contributing factor to their quarter. Released in 2005 on most major platforms, Psychonauts was widely considered a commercial failure.Īs of March 2012 – 7 years after initial release – the first game had only sold 400,000 copies. Psychonauts was the first game out of Double Fine Productions, at the time a new studio headed by Tom Schafer after he left LucasArts, now known as Lucasfilm Games. Psychonauts 2 is already something of a contained phenomenon, in that it’s a crowdfunded game by a studio now owned by Xbox, that’s also releasing on PlayStation… except the next-gen version is exclusive to Xbox… That all make sense? For those who maybe aren’t revised on their video game history, it might come as a surprise to know that this isn’t entirely unexpected. ![]()
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