Double Fine Concerned About Role in Next Generation

Tim Schafer revealed in a recent interview that he's concerned his Double Fine studio won't have a place on next generation consoles.

With the advent of a new console generation rapidly approaching (or already having begun if you count the Wii U), smaller developers are concerned there might not be a place for them on the new Xbox or PlayStation. Speaking with Polygon, Double Fine's Tim Schafer discussed his trepidation about finding a place for non-big budget, AAA titles on these upcoming devices.

"Our fear was that next generation was going to be only big, triple A games. It was only going to be a place for Call of Duty and Halo. But we've talked to them, and told people what things would be hard for teams our size with regards to consoles," Schafer said, adding concerns over the cost of certification, patches, etc. making it such a challenge.

Of course, that doesn't mean Double Fine isn't working to possibly put some games on future consoles. Schafer just wants to see a bit more flexibility. "We'd still like to be active in that space, we care about consoles, but unless they open things up a lot more like what we have on Steam … if they opened things up more it would be a more friendly place from our perspective," he added. "We've talked to them about this stuff, and you know, they hear us. They're big companies and they can't make changes overnight, but I think they're taking all of that stuff into consideration. We'll have to see what happens."

What do you think of Double Fine's worries? Are they warranted, or do you think they'll be able to survive?