Schafer: Fans worry too much about sales

By Tom Bramwell Published 7 April, 2009

Publishers like good games, apparently.

Psychonauts developer Tim Schafer reckons we all worry too much about the sales of videogames, while publishers actually put a lot of stock in a game's quality and critical reception.

"Fans worry too much about sales, to tell you the truth," he told MTV. "As long as you make a cool game, publishers want to talk to you... [They say] 'We liked Psychonauts and we think we could have sold it better'."

Mind you, half the cast of The Apprentice could have sold Psychonauts better, since it was relentlessly funny and ingenious. Check out our original review to remind yourself why.

Schafer's studio, Double Fine, is currently hard at work on Brutal Legend for EA Partners, with the game due out this autumn. Read our semi-recent Tim Schafer interview to remind yourself what it's about, and look out for our own impressions of the game and more from the man himself soon.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    I think he's probably testament to that, otherwise there'd be no Brutal Legends. Shame Psychonauts didn't sell better though, since it did deserve it.

  • bad09 #2 3 years ago

    "Psychonauts developer Tim Schafer reckons we all worry too much about the sales of videogames, while publishers actually put a lot of stock in a game's quality and critical reception. "

    Hmmm, were is Shenmue 3? How did the Dreamcast do? I wish RE didn't become a dull shooter? Why is nearly every other game a FPS?

    Of course gamers worry about sales, whether it sells or not decides what happens to a console they own or a game/series they enjoy. Money talks, opinion doesn't, just look at the charts.

  • menage #3 3 years ago

    Psychonauts didn't sell because nobody knew about it, and the boxart, while funky, was just too weird to attract anyone who wasn't on LSD.

    Same for Okami, I'm convinced the boxart killed that one at retail too. It didn't communicate how awesome the game was for a second.

  • Jasugun #4 3 years ago

    Publishers do business and engage lots of money, so they care about good games only because they strongly believe there's still a correlation between critical acclaim and sales. People at the head of UBI or the likes are business men, it's no use pretending they want good games for the sake of it.

  • Metalfish #5 3 years ago

    I think most peeps are missing the point slightly. Publishers like good games because if they do their job properly marketing wise they should make lots of monies. Turd polishing is usually much harder.

  • kangarootoo #6 3 years ago

    Good games generally sell better than bad ones, so any publisher with sense should be interested in funding good games.

    Its not a rule of course and plenty of good games slip through the net, but that is often because of a bad marketing job. There are also just changes in gaming trends of course, which mean that gamers on the whole aren't so much into certain types of games at any given time.

    Regardless, it seems that whoever Tim has been talking to has their publishing head screwed on, which bodes well for whatever he works on next :)

  • teabagger #7 3 years ago

    I think that often marketing simply don't understand the product they're trying to sell, be it a lack of involvement during production or simple laziness. When this coincides with a game that doesn't fit into one of the standard 'James Bond', or 'Racing', or 'Sports' brackets that are easy for any long-lunching marketing exec to understand then we see the kind of problems that Psychonauts suffered from.

    That said, I've seen marketing become involved and given too much say really early on in pre-production and end up completely screwing things up. The relationship between development and marketing is often a difficult one.

  • kangarootoo #8 3 years ago

    I think marketing input is vital, perhaps even at an early stage. The key thing is to have honest marketing input that is genuinely acting in the best interests of the product.

    A common phrase is "we can't sell that", but it is sometimes never clear whether that means "this can't be sold" or genuinely means "WE can't sell that".

    Nobody really wants to make a product that simply won't sell (bleeding for your art is all well and good, but if the result doesn't sell nobody will pay for you to be able to do it a second time) so GOOD marketing input is very important. Some people have a poor view of marketing as a whole, but I think that is just a view build on experiencing poor marketing.

  • skillian #9 3 years ago

    Some people have a poor view of marketing as a whole, but I think that is just a view build on experiencing poor marketing.

    Not necessarily. Some of the best marketing in the world is entirely dishonest (8 out of 10 cats prefer Whiskas!), and lots of people (but clearly not most) recognise that.

  • kangarootoo #10 3 years ago

    @skillian

    Well, fair enough. I meant specifically a poor view of the effectiveness of marketing (or lack thereof).

    I agree that people can have a poor view of marketing because it IS effective in all manner of sneaky ways, but that is a different issue :)

  • skillian #11 3 years ago

    a poor view of the effectiveness of marketing

    Ah OK, I misunderstood your point. Agreed that poor marketing can make people doubt its effectiveness, but you'd have to be crazy to discount it completely.

  • green_nifta #12 3 years ago


    Psychonauts was overrated. It was an average game just raised up to god-hood within the hardcore community because of Schafer's past history.

  • kangarootoo #13 3 years ago

    @green_nifta

    Thats a bit of a blanket statement don't you think?

    I don't hero worship anyone, and am regularly critical of exactly such practices in these very pages. Psychonauts had a few issues with its platforming mechanic, but was otherwise a very enjoyable game. I don't regard it as having Godhood status, but it was a damn sight better that a lot of the stuff out there and certainly worthy of an 8/10 average.

  • The_Inquisitor #14 3 years ago

    bad09 hit the nail on the head, we care about sales because we care about the future of games, Shenmue III being a prime example.

  • hiddenranbir #15 3 years ago

    Is that why you got dropped, Tim?

  • spudsbuckley #16 3 years ago

    I kind of agree with green_nifta but i'd go as far as to say Psychonauts was shit. People just glossed over this fact because it was quirky and ........ OMG Tim Schafer!11111!!!!!!!!111

  • menage #17 3 years ago

    Maybe you just didn't like it, that doesn't make it shit.

  • UncleLou #18 3 years ago

    As soon as someone starts to tell others why they (the others) like something, you know that person has run out of proper arguments.

  • bad09 #19 3 years ago

    Perceptive? nah just a moany old git, anyway CountFapula you can't disagree me ...RE5 IS a turd ;)