Double Fine Will Probably GO BROKE...

0:00You need something from Loves, but your day is already jam-packed. Since my Loves rewards and my Loves Pro Rewards members get free same-day delivery, we'll make the run for you. Seriously, just lock in your order and we'll do the rest. See you soon! Members get more AT Loves. $25 minimum and loyalty membership require. Order eligible items by 2PN. Subject to weight and size restrictions and availability in terms of Loves.com slash shipping terms. So the founder of Double Fine Tim Schaefer is confused. He's confused as to why all these companies are laying people off all of a sudden. He doesn't understand that the money has run out. This is a guy who's been bankrolled by Microsoft for good many years. He does not understand the economic reality in which Asha Sharma spelled it out very clearly. Microsoft was subsidizing Xbox.

1:00A lot of the games were not profitable. We saw what happens first-hand when even their biggest IP, one of their biggest IP, Halo, under performs. She pulled Halo away from them from Halo Studios 343 and gave it to Activision. Because Halo Studios wasn't cutting it. And I do believe that Double Fine was one of these companies that got gone because they weren't performing. And I'm not trying to be a dick, but I'm looking at this group photo. And I'm like, how many will Wheatons do you see? You see in this crowded people, right? And Tim Schaefer just seems completely clueless. I don't know. Has this guy ever had to really pay all the bills himself? Does he not realize that like if you don't sell games, you don't make money, you go out of business? Now he has had to lay people off and that sucks. It sucks to have to lay people off. I've had to lay people off many, many times over the course of my careers. And it's ever easy unless the person is a complete asshole.

2:00In that case, there's a door or whatever. But he's talking, he's got to lay people off. And then right after they part ways from Microsoft, part ways I'm using finger quotes here. It sounds to me like Microsoft kicked them into the curve. It's like either you take your company, go independent or we shut you down or whatever. They went and launched this Kickstarter for Amnesia Fortnite. And I thought that was the name of the game. That's not actually the name of the game. It's this developer filming their, I guess, retreat where they're brainstorming gaming ideas. And maybe one of those games will become a real game someday. But that's not even the big problem people had with it. The big problem was they announced that the Erica Ishi who is incredibly controversial with some gamers because of the antifus support and all this stuff, you know, whatever. That person is very controversial, right?

3:01So a lot of gamers are like, yeah, I'm not going to support you if you're going to bring Ishi into the project. This is not what I wanted. I want my money back, et cetera, et cetera. It became a big FNOR deal. Their Kickstarter has basically flatlined at this point. Again, I'm not fully understanding what it is. It just sounds to me like, and I could be misreading this. It just sounds to me like they just need some money right now. So they're like, what are we doing? We're going to plan our next game. Okay, let's monetize that. Let's monetize this planning our next game. And to their credit, they got over a half a million dollars. I mean, you know, it's like to just sit around and think about a new game, right? And I think people are supporting them because they like them to go indie. And look, I did really like double fine games back in the day. I just, they've just become another like, to me, like another Portland adjacent indie dev. And like so many others, a lot of these companies are not going to make it because they're not really companies. They don't think like businesses.

4:01They think like activists who like video games who want to make games that they would like to see for their friends to play. And not like people that need to create a hit for the general audiences for consumers for everybody, right? That's what it feels like. And that's great. But when you've got a lot of mouths of feed like you got to make, you got to make bank, right? And I'm sorry, from what I've seen for them in the last couple of years, I don't think this company is going to make bank anytime soon. I don't think they fully understand where most gamers are. Again, they're at almost 600,000. I guess Erica is she was supposed to be 600,000. Now, they did lock the comments on X, you know, the backlash to Eric is she and I want to be clear, like I can't say one way or the other. If Erica is she is a nice person, I have no fucking idea. I've never met them. I have no idea. Okay, I just know that is she has been very political and taken some very unpopular opinions with some people.

5:05And when you have somebody that's polarizing like that, but only on one side, only on one side, you know, people do tend to not want to back a project. Because now it's like, well, it's gone from just being like, hey, let's, let's make some indie games for everybody to like, oh, okay, this person's like totally antifund, like, you know, punch the Nazis and punch the Nazis. And punch the people who don't like Harry Potter or who like Harry Potter and, you know, support rolling all that shit. It's it's complicated, right? I mean, this is gaming in 2026 where it's not even about the video games is about the bullshit around the video game industry. But the fact that he's confused, confuses me. Because very easy to see why the video game industry is collapsing in it's partly because of shit like this. Devs making games that gamers don't want to buy and them overspending. Mostly I think it's them overspending like you you can make games that maybe misfire if you've only got maybe a dozen people working for you. But when you have these massive teams and double finds not one of these companies, but when you have massive teams, you know, hundreds of people working for you at six figure salaries.

6:12It's got shit's getting real expensive real quick and every other gaming CEO, including the head of epic is saying the same thing. The head of saber interactive. They're saying the same thing. We're overspending on people, right? We're outsourcing so we don't have to spend so much on people because we've got too much bloat in the video game industry. It costs too much and a lot of the reason it costs too much is the number of people that we have working in the game industry. And that's everything. That's Hollywood, that's comic books. That's that's everything. And people are like, you just want people to lose their jobs. I'm like, no, but a lot of those people I'm going to be real. They shouldn't have had a job in these industries in the first place. I'm not saying it's because they're untalented, although we could argue that I'm saying that there were way too many people hired to screw in a light bulb. That's what I'm saying. You only need one person to screw in a light bulb and they're hiring like 25 people to screw in light bulbs and they're paying them three times the going rate. Okay. That's what the problem is. It's not hard. It's really not hard. I'm sorry.

7:17Double fine Tim Schaeffer, you're $573,000 after Kickstarter takes a cut and Stripe takes a cut. Isn't going to go too far to pay your staff. If that's what the goal was, it's not. It's going to be games that sell well. Very, very well. They keep you in business. We'll see how that works out for them. I don't know. We talk a lot about different predictions for the entertainment industry here on Clownfish TV. If you think you know what's going to happen next, you can trade that on Kalshi. From the biggest stories in the world of the wildest questions about pop culture, Kalshi America's number one prediction market platform. Let's you trade your predictions in a live market. They've even got a dedicated section for culture. So some people are actually thinking that Grand Theft Auto 6 will not release before 2027, even though they have a release date for November. Let's see what happens if we predict and commit $100 to this. Okay. So if it does come out before 2027, hey, we want to share something that really caught my attention as a parent. I've learned that myopia near citedness is becoming much more common in kids and it's not something you want to ignore. If it goes unchecked, it can have an impact that goes on the market.

8:39So I think it's a great idea to have a child in front of a child who is way beyond schoolwork. What really matters is starting with an eye exam. An eye doctor can tell you what's going on with your child's vision and walk you through options that are designed specifically for kids like Esselaer Stellist lenses. I like that Stellist lenses are made for children and fit right into everyday life. They look like regular glasses, but they're part of a more thoughtful approach to managing myopia. So if you're an eye exam, this is your sign. Visit Esselaer.com to learn more about Stellist lenses and to find an Esselaer expert eye care professional near you. Make $5. There's a 94% chance. However, some people want to take the opposite position. They want to be contrairions. So if you say no, if you predict no Grand Theft Auto 6 will not come out before 2027. And you put $100 on that. You're talking your max payout is $853. So on Calshy, you're trading against peers in a live market. There's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position.

9:46Download the Calshy app and use code clownfish. That's code clownfish to get $25 when you trade $25 KALS H.I Calshy trade on anything got some fine print here guys 18 plus only restrictions, eligibility requirements apply event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Calshy products are not available in old jurisdictions, prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned for more information. See Calshy.com slash regulatory. Thank you so much. Calshy. We're going to get back into the podcast. Go out to clownfishtv.com. Catch up on all the drama out there. We actually do have an episode time about the Eric E. She thing again. I'm trying to be kind of neutralish about the E. She thing because I don't know Erica E. She. I've looked at the statements of looked at the things that E. She has said they are entitled to their opinions, but, but gamers are entitled and customers are entitled to hold or spend their money as they see fit the problem we have in the video game industry.

10:58And again, see also comics, see also animation, see also movies, basically all this entertainment stuff, which really isn't necessary. By the way, I need to remind people entertainment is not necessary. It's not like food, right? It's it's not like, you know plumbers or electricians. It's it's it's a surplus of time and money fund the entertainment industry. So it's really not necessary. So honestly, since you're competing with people eating, you literally are competing with people eating, right? And buying clothes for their kids. I think you need to be a little bit nicer, maybe tip people who want to buy your product because they don't have to. It's not like, well, I only only grocery store in town. If these people want to eat, they're going to have to put up with my Trump arrangement syndrome. That's not the case at all, right? That's not the case at all. So you really kind of I'm not saying you got to agree with people. I'm not saying it got to get on your knees and suck. I'm not saying any of that. I'm just saying probably avoiding hot topics.

12:05You know, if you want to sell more games, that goes on the other side too, right? I mean, I like if if you're making comics or you're making cartoons or video games or whatever, like I really don't need to go to your social media and and hear about how much you love Trump, right? I mean, good for you, I guess I don't give a shit one way or the other, right? I don't demonize Trump voters. I'm not a big Trump fan contrary to popular belief. I'm not. I don't I don't trust any politicians. I'm going to be honest. I think I think they're all kind of sleazy. I think we got some people there a little sleazy with the others, but you know, people don't want to hear about my politics. They don't give a shit. They really don't care. You know, and I would like us to get to a place where it didn't matter anymore, but especially in video games, here's where we are. I am waiting for. And you know, I could I could be wrong in this one, but I'm waiting for oh my God, the Kickstarter underperformed and it's somehow gamer gates fault because for some reason, there's still bringing gamer gate up in 2026.

13:13Geeky did a video on that last week and I'm like, are you kidding me? Like why are we even like again, this makes as much sense as bringing up the Vietnam war in like 1992. Okay, but you know, people like Jane Fonda were doing it. So it's like whatever. Anyway, it's trending towards 658,000 people need to understand with Kickstarter. A couple of things here. One, there's always a big push at the end, both on the part of the project people, the project managers, and also on the part of Kickstarter, they'll send out reminder emails and all that. So like if you see a Kickstarter, it was like, oh, yeah, this was trending higher on the last day. That last day, it might bring in a bunch of money. Kickstarter is a very front loaded and I guess backloaded where it's the first couple days in the last couple days, that's where most of your money is made. And then it's like a slow crawl in between unless there's like some media attention or something like that. Now this one's been going kind of backwards. And I think it would be doing a lot more than it is because of the air issue thing. Now if you go out to the campaign, people are saying they support issue and go double find all that stuff.

14:23Here's the thing about Kickstarter. I don't think people know if you give somebody a refund, they waive the right to be able to complain on your comments. Now it wasn't always the case. This is a more recent addition, I think the last few years. But basically you give them a refund and they're not allowed to comment. So if there are a lot of unhappy people, they probably got their money back and you're just not going to hear about it. So just be aware of that. That is, which I actually do agree with. I think that's actually a pretty good policy. Like if you got your money back, you shouldn't be allowed to complain. Yeah, it's like you got your money back, right? Whatever. And they'll say, well, you know, technically it's not a store and all this stuff to protect themselves. Right. But it's not going as well as you would think it would go given the pedigree that double find has finally got to his statement. Okay, let's get there. I just had to paint a picture for you guys. Okay, double find Fadda Tim Schaeffer is questioning what is actually going on with the video game industry after years of layoffs and studio closures says pirate nation on X. Schaeffer said he thought layoffs were supposed to be part of a cycle with developers eventually getting hired again, but the industry has been stuck in the same situation for around four years now.

15:36I just assume it's like someone is being greedy somewhere. Let me reread his statement. I just assume it's like someone is being greedy somewhere. Asha Sharma, who was briefly his boss said Microsoft was subsidizing Xbox. I can almost guarantee you that double find was not adding to their bottom line. That's not greed. That's that's business 101, which I think Mr. Schaeffer is going to find out the hard way how this actually works because he doesn't have daddy or mama or whatever Microsoft to pay the bills anymore. I think you're going to find out you got to bring it or you're done. I want to share something that really caught my attention as a parent. I've learned that myopia near-sightedness is becoming much more common in kids and it's not something you want to ignore. If it goes unchecked, it can have an impact that goes way beyond schoolwork.

16:37What really matters is starting with an eye exam. An eye doctor can tell you what's going on with your child's vision and walk you through options that are designed specifically for kids like Esselaer's Stellas lenses. I like that Stellas lenses are made for children and fit right into every day life. They look like regular glasses, but they're part of a more thoughtful approach to managing myopia. If you're a parent and you've been meaning to book an eye exam, this is your sign. Visit Esselaer.com to learn more about Stellas lenses and to find an Esselaer expert eye care professional near you. What frustrates him is that people are still playing games and companies are still making money yet developers continue to lose their jobs. You can make a billion dollars and spend the billion in one dollars and be in the red. This happened with streaming too. Everybody in Hollywood was like, oh my god, guys, look how much money Netflix and Disney plus are making. They're making money hand over fist. I'm like, do you know what they're spending on this shit? Like there's not any leftover money. They're taking out loans to pay for this shit. Like especially Disney, they had to go build Disney plus from scratch. Right?

17:45Like there's no extra money in the couch cushions. They're not holding out on you. They're actually losing money, hoping that the long game is if we do a bunch of content, we spend now five to 10 years from now, we will reap the results of that. Again, this is another business one of one thing. You plant the seeds, you give it so much time. Usually five years is about the average on a business before you start to think about whether or not you need to pivot or pull the plug. Right? Because it takes about five years to get a business off the ground on average. You know, and most businesses go out within three years. Five years is the make a break point. And, you know, so companies are willing to invest for like five or 10 years as long as there's a plan and they're like, you know, show us where the money is going to come from. That's what they're doing with streaming. Then they realize they greenlit a bunch of dumb shit probably written by a lot of these kinds of people that all look like Will Wheaton and we got Cindy Lopper and I like Cindy Lopper. So that's okay. But you know, I'm saying like they greenlit a bunch of shit that did not perform. They've lost a bunch of money. And now they're cutting back to everybody's cutting back. Cause again, reminder, people don't need video games like food.

18:53Okay. I know people make the joke. I need video games like food. Yeah, you really don't you don't need entertainment. Okay. It's a luxury item. Theme parks, video games, you know, cartoon movies, action figures, tabletop games, all the stuff which is fun to have. If you've got extra time, but if you have to work two or three jobs just to put food on the table, even if you have the money for the shit, which is getting crazy expensive, by the way, you don't have time to play any of it. So, you know, people are being a lot figure about what they're spending their money on, right. Pirate Nation says he refuses to listen to gamers and is blocking them such a mystery. Yeah. So he's actually or whoever's running double fine social media is actually blocking people for being critical of the Eric is she that's why I went down the Eric is she road. Ghost up prime says ghost up prime says double fine as a studio of worthless are words who spent over a decade taking Microsoft money and producing nothing of value and doesn't understand layoffs. He's the equivalent of a guy abusing welfare, but in the game dev industry.

19:59That's what most of these people are doing. Yeah, and they're also comparing this to this is the studio behind Clarebscure expedition 33 a game that is received near universal praise and reception from both the audience and critics makes you think. See, they look like they're serious about making games. This crew looks like they look like extras and like a sitcom or something. I don't know. It's weird. So they're talking about the Silicon Valley bank run. This is actually this guy is actually true. This is Dan and on three says the truth is countries pulled out of America because they saw how money was being used here without a venture capital. There's no jobs to go around that there's actually true so much of this country is bankrolled by debt. It's insane. Our government is in debt and the trillions. But we're all told you need to pay your credit card debt off or you're a bad person. You need to pay your credit cards and save your monies and pay your taxes and our own government doesn't do any of that shit. He just taken, taken, taken, then they go for more money. It's crazy. And that's what these people think you do. Well, it's okay. Oh, we ran out of money. Just print more. It's fine.

21:07Do you remember all the girl boss TikTok videos and shit like that where women are doing nothing and living in adult daycares? Yes. The people funding game development studios pulled out they were tired of all the weird force propaganda agendas. Yes, it wasn't profitable. It wasn't profitable. That's thing. Now we'll go out and see what he said. According to IGM, but like I did a video the other day talking about the Saber CCO Tim Willets. He said that the video game industry now I love the headlines here. It's because they're over specialized. No, what he actually said was the games cost too much damn money. We're making games for like six to 10 million dollars. We're sending stuff overseas so we don't have to deal with game development in California because the people cost too much. That's what he actually said. They don't want to just spell it out. They're like, yeah, he's basically like we need to stop making games in the US because it costs too much money. Because these people cost too much money and the stuff balloons. That's why Sharma's laying off the people. She's laying off. She's like, hey, yeah, free rides over.

22:10Man, like you got to bring it. I'm sorry. If double fine were bringing it, double fine would still be with Microsoft. But nothing's off the table now. You make halo games that don't sell. Guess what? Halo studios. You're losing halo. I mean, it's crazy. Tim Sweeney. Who is in charge of Epic Games said we're in the middle of a video game crash. The worst crash we've seen since the 80s. This is the guy in charge of fortnight. Fucking fortnight fortnight. Like probably the most profitable game out there and he's like, we're in the middle of the video game crash. All right. And again, it comes down to how much are paying people and how long it's taking them to make games. That's it's not rocket science. These people don't even understand like grade school mathematics. Right. Like I was in the academic that I just some really nerd shit. I know I was in the academic to Catholic law for economics when I was in high school. And this is like this. This is below the level I was expected to perform at in high school.

23:13Okay. And this guy runs a damn company like very basic. You spend more than you make you go out of business. Not this is not this is not hard at all. But here's the article from IGN. They're talking about Xbox layoffs. This is shaker talking to the BBC because he's probably trying to pimp his kickstarter. I don't understand the economics of making games to be honest. I often for years thought I understood them because there are layoffs, which is bad. And then the people who make the games realize, oh, we need people to make games. The executives are like, oh, we fired everybody. We need some people to make this game. They hire them back. And then they, you know, well, they basically hire people gig to gig if they green. It's just like Hollywood. If you're working in like visual effects or something like they'll hire an FX house to do the effects on that movie. Or they'll hire animators to work on that movie. But once that movie's over, if there's no sequel, you got to go look for another gig. That's just the way it is. So he said, I always assumed, oh, they'll be the cycle of ups and downs, nubs and downs, but it's been down for like four years. And I don't know why Tim Swini, the CEO of Epic is telling you why the guy in charge of saber interactive is telling you why there are so many other people in the video game industry.

24:31Mr. Schaefer, who are telling you why, right? And it does come down to people overpaid people and games that people are not buying. It's really it's so fucking simple. I don't because people are playing games. Schaefer said and people are making money. So I don't know why there's this big loss. I want to share something that really caught my attention as a parent. I've learned that myopia near-sightedness is becoming much more common in kids. And it's not something you want to ignore. If it goes unchecked, it can have an impact that goes way beyond schoolwork. What really matters is starting with an eye exam. An eye doctor can tell you what's going on with your child's vision and walk you through options that are designed specifically for kids like Esselaer Stellist Lenses. I like that Stellist Lenses are made for children and fit right into everyday life. They look like regular glasses, but they're part of a more thoughtful approach to managing myopia. If you're a parent and you've been meaning to book an eye exam, this is your sign. Visit Esselaer.com to learn more about Stellist Lenses and to find an Esselaer expert eye care professional near you.

25:38Jobs. I just assume it's like someone's being greedy somewhere, but I hope it's a cycle and I hope it bounces back. It will bounce back. It will, but it's going to be very, very different. It's going to be very streamlined and I don't think there's going to be any room for, you know, a $200, $300 million triple A failure. Shaffer went on to say the entire industry is volatile, volatile across both AAA and indie studios, like despite the high amount of creativity, I think there's a lot of life and excitement and creativity in the games industry now, especially in the indie space. I'm not one of those snobbs who say only indie games are creative. I think a lot of AAA games do great, do great creative work. It's just that it's been much more violent to work in AAA because it costs too much. More stressful and your work is often not as rewarded because you'll get laid off as soon as you finish your game. But in indie games, there's no guarantee of being not laid off, but the money after you shit, but out of money after you ship your game.

26:41Yeah, so they both have their risks. Shaffer previously described how he managed to keep double fine of float after its divestment from Xbox and an interview with Bloomberg, where he called the ordeal a creative awakening that spurred him onwards rather than making home full. Probably like, oh shit, we got to make some games that people want to buy. Well, let's monetize this, sitting around thinking about making games and then let's go higher, Erica, ishi to piss off a bunch of people too. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, come on. The one puts double fine out of business except for me, he said I have to admire that though. Asher Sharma is not going to shoot my dog. I'm going to shoot it. But I'm not going to shoot it because it's going to do great. A lot of people want to walk the dog. A lot of people want to walk the dog, guys. Xbox is expected to continue layoffs across his business as part of its ongoing plan to reorganize itself with the most latest of those affecting Halo Studios. Again, when Halo studios, I'm sorry, when Halo Studios formerly 343 again, you can look up a picture of the staff of 343 while you're at it too.

27:48I think you'll find some similarities. I'm just saying there's a common thread here. When Halo Studios loses Halo, it's definitely game over. Like, nothing is sacred. It's done. And it's all going to come down to performance, right? That's it. So, go to wrap it up. Please subscribe. We'll talk later.

28:48But they're part of a more thoughtful approach to managing myopia. If you're a parent and you've been meaning to book an i-exam, this is your sign. Visit Esselaer.com to learn more about Stellis lenses and to find an Esselaer expert iCare professional near you. Your Soca Honda dealers are honored to help the community. Our program started the first deaf and hard of hearing football team of its kind in our league. We help full Soca Honda dealers surprised us with brand new uniforms and giving our athletes more than just jerseys, a community investing in their program. And we want to help you too, with 1.99% APR on a 2026 Ridge line for well-qualified buyers. At your Soca Honda dealers, made through contract limited must finance through Honda financial services. This will qualify take delivery by 11226.