Psychonauts 2 , the follow-up to the beloved Psychonauts , was announced all the way back in 2015. Double Fine, the development studio behind games like Broken Age and Costume Quest , announced a crowdfunding campaign for the game through Fig.
In 2019, Double Fine was acquired by Microsoft, effectively making it a first-party Xbox studio. Development continued on Psychonauts 2 from that point, and it seems like the long-awaited game is nearing its completion.
NEWS
In an interview with IGN today, Double Fine President Tim Schafer spoke about the studio’s progress on its next project, Psychonauts 2 .
Schafer shared that his team "mostly have everything now in the game" and that they're "mostly moving on to polishing stuff that's in the game already." He noted that "just like the first time [with Psychonauts 1 ], it took a while to find the levels. And now I feel really good about where they ended up."
As Psychonauts 2 has been in the works for the latter half of the last decade, Scaefer shared that he's had his eye on part of its ending for years:
"There's something that happens at the end of Psychonauts 2 that I set up years and years ago."
The exec also revealed that COVID-19 had a direct impact on the sequel, saying "2020 definitely did not help speed up development."
The full podcast can be found here .
WHAT THIS MEANS
From Schafer’s quotes and McCaffrey’s reporting, it seems that Psychonauts 2 is expected to finally release in 2021. Schafer gave no concrete release date for the game, but his quotes signify that the game is nearing its completion. Schafer saying, “We mostly have everything now in the game” is reassuring for fans of the Psychonauts franchise as it seems that the light is nearing the end of the tunnel.
His tease of "There's something that happens at the end of Psychonauts 2 that I set up years and years ago" will likely be satisfying for fans of the franchise. Fans have waited years for a full-fledged sequel, so Schafer promising the fulfillment of a setup will be something to look forward to.
Psychonauts 2 releasing in 2021 comes at a much-needed time for the Xbox platform. The Xbox Series X/S released last month with no stand-out launch games compared to PlayStation 5’s rather impressive launch lineup.
Xbox’s first-party lineup throughout the Xbox One generation was somewhat lackluster. However, with its purchase of Zenimax Media (the owners of Bethesda Softworks) and its newly bolstered lineup of first-party studios, Xbox is poised to deliver a plethora of exclusive titles. Halo Infinite will undoubtedly be the tentpole Xbox release next year, but Psychonauts 2 will likely fill the indie hole for the Xbox platform.
PLAYSTATION Writer
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