Minecraft creator tempers Psychonauts 2 expectations

Markus "Notch" Persson has taken to his blog to set realistic expectations about his offer to help fund Psychonauts 2.

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Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson gained a lot of attention for his offer to chip in personal funds towards Psychonauts 2. The internet responded the way you'd expect for a dormant, cult-hit property, so Persson has taken to his blog to set reasonable expectations.

He says that he and Tim Schafer have only exchanged "a couple of e-mails" and might meet at the upcoming Game Developers Conference. He says that the budget for the game is three times higher than he though, and Double Fine will most likely be busy with its Kickstarter project for a while anyway.

"I would not be investing in this as a charity," he says. "It would be because I think the game would be profitable. And naturally, I wouldn't want to have any creative input in the game. It would be purely a high risk investment in a project I believe in." He also points out that other investors have expressed interest.

Persson says that this kind of investment would require a lot of discussion, but he says he has advisers to help him with that aspect. "All I know is that IF the numbers work out and IF they still want to do it and IF they don't decide to self fund a sequel by doing more crowd funding (which is honestly what I would've done if I were them), I would be most interested in doing this type of investment."

He says his reasons for setting more realistic expectations is that he's "incredibly scared of the very real risk of people feeling let down just because I took a chance at something that doesn't end panning out." He jokes that if the deal doesn't work, he'll "just go into hiding for a few years."

Even if the investment is higher than expected, Persson seemed unphased by the dollar amount as of a few days ago. He said he "can do" $13 million if necessary. Whether this is ultimately determined as profitable, though, is unclear -- and with Double Fine focused on its adventure game, we might not know for quite a while.

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