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Eurogamer Let's talk about THQ's two game deal with Double Fine.
Danny Bilson

I'm a huge fan of Tim [Schafer]. Grim Fandango is a masterpiece in the history of gaming, not to mention everything else he's done.

When he came in for a meeting, what he presented were some digital games, with all of the Double Fine creativity and originality. There are two of them, we're doing. We've announced Costume Quest, and we haven't announced the name of the second one.

They're both really cool, inventive and fun. And bring the originality and freshness Tim brings to everything. I'm very excited about that. Costume Quest is really fun and has a large mass appear factor.

The second one is just as cool, if not cooler. The second one was the one that really knocked my socks off. When we announce that we can talk about that.

Costume Quest is coming this fall, obviously in time for Halloween. It's kids, adult – anybody can enjoy it. It's got all of the Double Fine sensibility. I'm really excited about that.

Eurogamer I interviewed Tim about a month ago, and he had some choice words for Bobby Kotick.
Danny Bilson

Oh yeah, was that your interview?

Eurogamer Yep. Did Tim's comments endear him to you?
Danny Bilson

No. His games endeared him to us, and always have over the years. I go way back as a Tim Schafer fan. I have to point again to Grim Fandango as being a work of art. It's a genius product. Freshness of Psychonauts is fascinating. The games he's doing for us are really cool.

Brutal Legend was a hilarious cartoon. People have said games are funny, blah, blah, for 30 years – as long as I've been playing games. That's the first one that really made me laugh.

When the Jack Black character was mocking what was going on in the environment around him, I was laughing. I want to work with Tim more in the future. I want to do something on the core side with him as soon as we can.

Eurogamer Is the second game Psychonauts 2?
Danny Bilson

It is not Psychonauts 2. It's original. It's completely original. It's brand new. You've never seen anything like it. I promise.

Eurogamer Finally, when will you talk about Volition's third-person RPG?
Danny Bilson

We're not announcing anything but I can tell you Guillermo del Toro and I are very close friends. He lives about two miles from our office. I'm not confirming anything, but we have a lot of shared vision. We both spent a lot of time in the film business.

Now my PR person is about to smack me upside the head. If we were to do a game with Guillermo and Volition, I would really support that in a big way, personally. But we're not announcing anything yet. I'm not telling you what type of game it is or anything like that, if we were to do something. But I can tell you... [Bilson is muted].

...But he and I are good friends. We get along great. We have a lot of shared sensibility. He's a big fan of my previous work in the film business and I'm a big fan of his current work in the film business. He plays a lot of videogames and he lives practically next door so we hang out a lot and have a lot of fun.

Eurogamer You went silent there for a few seconds. I wonder if someone pushed a button that meant I couldn't hear what were saying.
Danny Bilson

Yeah, I got smacked upside the head.

Danny Bilson is THQ's executive vice president of Core Games.

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