Double Fine demands 360-compatible Psychonauts

The tale of Double Fine's Psychonauts doesn't have a storybook ending. The game, from the mind of Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle), won major awards and gamers' hearts but underperformed in retail. Its poor sales figures were seen as a major reason that its publisher, Majesco, went from promising gaming superstar to Wall Street bust.

However, if critics' say is worth anything, it wasn't the game's fault that Majesco went south. One of the higher-rated games of 2005, Psychonauts was released on the PlayStation 2, PC, and Xbox. Now, Double Fine wants to see it played on one more console.

On the developer's Web site, Schafer is calling on the Psychonauts community to ask Microsoft to make the game playable on the Xbox 360. After likening his own request to Microsoft for making the game backward compatible to the final exchange in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schafer asks gamers to write into Microsoft's backward-compatibility-info e-mail account to make software emulators for the game.

"I want you to...send Microsoft a heartfelt message. Something to the effect of, 'I am a 9-year-old boy in the hospital, dying of consumption, and my last wish is to play Psychonauts on my XBOX 360!' (Please, try to make up your own disease.)"

Aside from some comments possibly taken out of context, Microsoft has vocally recommitted itself to expanding the catalog of backward-compatible games. The company released its latest additions to the list, which added 21 games, including Big Mutha Truckers, Bad Boys 2, and Minority Report...but no Psychonauts.