Double Fine: Kotaku spoke with Tim Schafer about withdrawn union petition from May
Kotaku published an interview with Tim Schafer about the union petition at Double Fine that was filed in May and withdrawn two weeks later.
- The outlet spoke with Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer for nearly an hour and also interviewed 15 current and former employees.
- Microsoft/Xbox declined to comment, while the Communications Workers of America (CWA) did provide a statement.
What happened
Kotaku published a long article about the union situation at Double Fine, the studio behind Psychonauts. According to the piece, the coverage focused on a petition that was filed in May and withdrawn about two weeks later. The article is structured as an interview with Tim Schafer and as a report on the reactions of other people involved in the same events.
For the article, Kotaku reached out to Microsoft/Xbox, the Communications Workers of America, and Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer. Xbox declined to comment, the CWA provided a statement, and Schafer took part in an interview that lasted nearly an hour. Kotaku describes that conversation as an attempt to ask Schafer about his view of the events, what he knew and did not know, and his responsibility in the process.
The outlet also says it spoke with 15 current and former Double Fine employees about their experiences around the union campaign. The available source information does not go into detail about those experiences, but the number of interviewed employees is explicitly mentioned. Kotaku also describes the published piece as a near-complete transcript of the conversation with Schafer, lightly edited for clarity.
Timeline
May 2026 — A union petition is filed at Double Fine.
About two weeks later — The petition is withdrawn, after which the situation becomes the subject of a larger Kotaku article.
After that — Kotaku contacts Xbox, the CWA, and Tim Schafer for comment; Xbox declines to respond, while the CWA provides a statement.
Article publication — Kotaku publishes the interview with Schafer, based on a nearly hour-long conversation and talks with 15 current and former employees.
In the published piece — Kotaku presents the conversation with Schafer as a near-complete transcript, lightly edited for readability.
Background
Double Fine is known as the studio behind Psychonauts and other games. The Kotaku article places the union petition in the context of organizing within the studio, but the available source information does not provide a full account of what happened in May. What is clear is that the publication focuses on the period when the petition was filed and then withdrawn, and on how the parties involved responded.
The source information also does not specify what was in the CWA statement or how Schafer described his role. What is clear is that Kotaku approached the topic as an interview about the events surrounding the withdrawn petition. The reporter spoke not only with Schafer, but also with 15 current and former employees, indicating that the piece aims to combine multiple perspectives.
External context around the article confirms that Kotaku spoke with Schafer for nearly an hour and that the conversation covered what happened “last May” and where the studio goes from here. That context matches the article’s main claim: that the publication centers on the union campaign at Double Fine and the aftermath of the withdrawn petition. At the same time, the available source information leaves several open questions unspecified, including the exact trigger in May, the contents of the CWA statement, and the specific experiences of the 15 employees.
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Sources
- Kotaku: "Our Interview With Tim Schafer About Unionization At Psychonauts Studio Double Fine"