Double Fine made great games for Game Pass, but everything changed with Asha Sharma's arrival, complains Tim Schafer

Tim Schafer's latest "great" game failed to gather more than 200 players on release on Steam.

Double Fine Productions founder Tim Schafer sharply criticized Xbox's current direction, stating that the studio's relationship with Microsoft changed after Phil Spencer's departure and Asha Sharma's arrival. According to the developer, at some point he felt that Xbox management was no longer interested in the previous format of cooperation.

Schafer said that Double Fine and Xbox had a mutually beneficial relationship for a long time: the studio created games, and Microsoft received amazing projects for Game Pass. However, after the change in leadership, according to the Double Fine founder, "their mission changed".

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The developer admitted that he gradually began to have a bad feeling. Double Fine stopped receiving clear answers to their questions, and some Microsoft representatives with whom the studio used to regularly communicate stopped responding altogether.

Schafer was particularly harsh towards Asha Sharma, comparing his studio to a dog that the head of Xbox wanted to shoot.

Ultimately, Microsoft severed ties with Double Fine. The studio experienced 23 layoffs and lost part of its funding from the corporation.

At the same time, Schafer does not view returning to independence solely as a defeat. On the contrary, he called what is happening for Double Fine a kind of "creative awakening". Now the studio can once again independently determine its future, choose projects and development direction — although along with creative freedom, it will also have to take on all related financial risks.