During a recent Paley Center for Media panel in Menlo Park, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer described the importance of cultivating fans of individual development studios like Double Fine Productions.
Spencer shared some insights while speaking with Double Fine Productions founder Tim Schafer. The pair had been discussing the “human nature” of the creative process, and Spencer pointed out the unique advantage of Double Fine’s audience.
“One of the things I love about Double Fine is that they’ve only made about one and a half sequels for their games, and what do you end up with? There are fans of Double Fine [as a developer],” said Spencer. “You want to make sure that on the platform there’s a way to show your love of Double Fine, even not knowing what their next thing might be, like their next game is very different from Keeper.”
“We have a ton of fans who are Double Fine fans first, and then, of course, we have the key franchises, making sure that people who love Minecraft, Call of Duty, or Fortnite have a place to come together and create positive interactions. It’s a real business imperative as well as a creative imperative, because we see the most success when those communities are thriving, and that’s increasingly true in gaming, and I think this is true across all media.”
His comments are a striking contrast with Microsoft’s actions in 2025. The company has laid off hundreds of developers and closed some studios, ending development on several games before they had a chance to earn a fanbase of their own. This presents a particularly challenging position for Xbox developers, one Double Fine will have to address while trying to evolve their existing fanbase.
Double Fine founder Tim Schafer wants players to see developers as human
During the panel, Tim Schafer spoke about Double Fine’s history, and how their crowdfunding efforts and community outreach in the 2010s – which saw the studio film a documentary about their development journey on Broken Age—helped focus on depicting the developer as more than just the games they released.
“I view this as a kind of mission statement: people don’t realize that human beings make video games, that many people really care about them, and that these are labors of love,” said Schafer. I think there’s a tendency for people in media companies to share their experiences in a very positive, one-sided way, which might alienate people who don’t see you as human beings. I just think it’s okay to be human beings.”
Spencer made other comments discussing the human nature of creativity, like briefly mentioning that Microsoft Gaming is using generative AI for social moderation and security, not creative tasks. He also said there are growing risks with maintaining a creative focused business in the current landscape, and one potential avenue to find stability and maintain success is to think beyond a singular medium.
“I think that there’s something uniquely human about the creative process and making sure that we protect and nurture that in a creative industry,” said the Microsoft Gaming CEO. “It’s not always easy, because there are certain things that will be rewarded in the market and certain things that won’t, but I think it’s the bravest thing a team can do, whether you’re making a movie or a television show, to go and put something out for the internet to evaluate and judge and comment on.”