Alan Wake 2 is the last phase of full production

In the comment section of the new statement to investors, Virtala reveals that both Control 2 and Max Payne 1&2 Remake have moved to the proof-of-concept stage. In particular, the development team has worked on the world building and gameplay mechanics of Control 2, while the studio expects to grow the size of the team behind the Max Payne remake gradually towards the end of the year. It hopes that the remake will be at a “high quality to today’s consoles and PCs.”

Remedy will also continue development on Codename Condor, a co-operative multiplayer game set in the world of Control, as well as Codename Vanguard, a F2P co-operative game that has gained more momentum with new key hires. Codename Condor is a part of Remedy’s plans to “expand the Control brand.”

Meanwhile, in line with our prior report, Alan Wake 2 will be releasing this year. Remedy is focusing its efforts on its upcoming launch, with the game starting its “last major phase of full production.”

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Control 2 confirmed to be in development with 505 Games as co-publisher

The deal between Remedy Entertainment and 505 Games was confirmed in a press release. The piece explains how Control 2’s initial development budget is €50 million and that it will be built using Remedy’s proprietary Northlight engine and tools.

Control 2 will be targeting current-gen hardware including PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. 505 Games will publish Control 2 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, while Remedy will publish the game on PC.

Neither PS4 nor Xbox One are mentioned in the press release, which likely means that the game is being developed exclusively for current-gen systems. There is also no mention of a Nintendo Switch cloud version, despite the first game being available in that way.

Remedy Entertainment is also working on Alan Wake 2, though the developer canceled plans to show it off during the summer.

Get PSLS’ thoughts on Control in the review. Spoilers: Our reviewer wasn’t quite so impressed with the game when compared to our peers.

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No Alan Wake 2 info is coming this summer

Remedy Creative Director Sam Lake, Alan Wake actor Ilkka Villi, and Alan Wake voice actor Matthew Poretta hosted an anniversary update stream celebrating the series. They spoke briefly about Alan Wake 2 and explained that development was going well and that a big chunk of it is already playable. However, the team decided they’d rather spend the time it would take to create a trailer or demo working on completing the game. Development has picked up speed, and Remedy wants to keep that momentum going. The bottom line is that the devs don’t want to shift into marketing mode until the time is appropriate.

Lake stated:

We want to make sure that we are creating the best possible experience, the best, first survival horror game for Remedy. We don’t want to pivot the team away from that focus to work on a demo right now.

This isn’t Remedy’s first attempt to make Alan Wake 2 a reality. While the studio wanted to move on to a sequel after Alan Wake was released, Microsoft wasn’t interested and instead encouraged them to try something new, which resulted in Quantum Break. The studio attempted to return to the idea around 2017, but it didn’t pan out. However, the success of Control led more people to discover Alan Wake, and the positive response to its remaster and Control’s AWE DLC signaled it was finally time to buckle down.

No release date has been announced for Alan Wake 2, but it sounds like we’ll be seeing it sooner rather than later.

In other news, Fall Guys is rumored to be going free-to-play, and a revised model of PS5 has been registered in Japan.

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Now, 505 admits that it could have handled things better, and has said that it has learned lessons from the controversy.

In an interview with Games Industry, president Neil Ralley said that 505’s intention wasn’t to create “blockers” for a group of players. He chalked the mishandling up to the company being new to cross-gen upgrades.

Every transition from one generation to another creates challenges for both development and publishing. The Smart Delivery option, if I can use that term to generalize, was something we hadn’t faced before as an industry. For Control, we made certain decisions restricted how we could perform Smart Delivery for the next-gen version of Control. They were the correct decisions at the time, but they created those blockers. We were unable to backtrack and reorganize how we were developing the Ultimate Edition for there to be a sensible and fair way to do Smart Delivery.

We learnt a lot from that. Did we as a publisher handle it in the best way and communicate it in the best way to the audience? Maybe not. But we did our best to satisfy consumers… Moving forwards, we will be able to do this in a much better way and you’ll see that in the next examples that we’ve got with Ghostrunner at the end of September and Assetto Corsa in early 2022. 

A new Control game is currently in development.

[Source: Games Industry]

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The developer is still raking royalty revenues from Control, with Q2 2021 revenue reportedly higher than in Q2 2020 revenue. Remedy has said that its strong cash position has enabled it to come up with ambitious long-term plans.

Part of the plans, as previously announced, is a multiplayer spin-off of Control that’ll be published by 505 Games. The publishing agreement also extends to a big-budget Control game, which is in early conception phase. In the same report, Remedy revealed that Control has now been played by over 10 million players.

In terms of upcoming projects, Remedy announced that its mystery AAA project with Epic Games has entered full production. The project is still under wraps but rumors have been swirling that it’s an Alan Wake title.

Vanguard, the studio’s free-to-play co-op game, is “progressing at a good pace” and is currently undergoing closed gameplay tests. Remedy also has a smaller-scale game currently in full production.

“Control continues to reach new players, expands into new games, and is a strong proof of our ability to create category defining games and brands,” reads the financial report. “Our multi-project model is continuously developing and we are approaching a phase where we can launch new games more often and more regularly. We are on track to reach our ambitious long-term growth objectives.”

Thanks to its recent success, Remedy has been able to increase its headcount to 293.

[Source: Remedy]

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Condor is set to expand on the world that was introduced in Control, and acts as another piece of the Remedy Connected Universe that the developer has been setting up. The franchise’s Game Director Mikael Kasurinen describes the world as “a place for multitudes of stories, events, and characters” and “a place where unexpected, strange, and extraordinary things occur”. Not much else is known about the premise of the game apart from the concept art shown above. The title will be developed on Remedy’s Northlight engine and will be aiming for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The initial development budget has been set at €25 million.

The game is the creation of Remedy’s new multiplayer-focused team known as Vanguard. Their main aim is “to challenge conventions and to prototype and ship new types of ongoing live multiplayer game experiences”. Kasurinen is aware that fans have their reservations over the team trying something different from their more traditional single-player experiences:

We get that there is going to be skepticism about multiplayer. But I believe we can create shared experiences without compromising the unique DNA of who we are, or the stories we want to tell. Yes, we need to re-think our angles, our techniques, our mindset, but we see it as an exciting challenge: What would a Remedy multiplayer game look like?

Remedy currently has five games in development. As well as Condor, a single-player campaign for Crossfire X/HD has been confirmed. There is also the studio’s “next big title”, and this could possibly be the “bigger-budget Control-game” that was also revealed today. More information on this title will be revealed in the future. The collection is completed by two unannounced console and PC titles in collaboration with Epic Games. Rumors also recently came up that Remedy was working with Sony on a PlayStation-exclusive title, but those have yet to be confirmed.

[Source: Remedy Games (1, 2)]

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Of the 13 new games to be released during fiscal year 2022, only two of them were named. One of these is the PC and mobile game Puzzle Quest 3, while the second is a free-to-play reboot of Hawken that’s aiming for a multiplatform release. The latter will have a new game design when compared to the ill-fated 2012 original as well as enhanced mech customisation to encourage players to spend in-game. Both games are due to be released sometime between July and September this year. There will also be an unannounced AA game due for release during the first quarter of 2022 and ten A games throughout the year, classified as new titles that have a maximum development budget of €5 million.

Further into the future, there will be the previously announced second title in the Ghostrunner franchise. Digital Bros. also revealed there’s a second game being developed in the Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night franchise. Neither of these have a release window, or any further details for that matter. Assetto Corsa 2 is due to be released in 2024, while Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is currently scheduled for fall 2022. Accompanying these is an unannounced game from Spacelords developer Mercurysteam and “several” undisclosed IPs.

Both Assetto Corsa and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night continue to do well. The former has now sold 12 million copies, creating more than €66 million in revenue. The latter has shifted more than 1 million copies and has accrued €30 million in revenue. Meanwhile, Control has added another €11.5 million in revenue since the last sales figures update at the start of April, reaching a total of €71.5 million. It has sold more than 2 million copies.

Premium games make up 88.9% of the company’s yearly revenue. Free-to-play games make up 7.2%, leaving the remaining 3.9% to come from Italian distribution and “other projects”. Due to this, Digital Bros. has decided to move away from publishing agreements. They’re instead going to be increasingly focused on developing premium and free-to-play games internally, or leasing out their owned IPs to external studios. Following the success of the Ghostrunner IP since its acquisition by 505 Games, the company is looking at acquiring another IP relatively soon, although they didn’t say what this could be.

[Source: Digital Bros.]

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Ghostrunner‘s production costs of €2.5 million were recouped in a single day and the game had sold 500,000 copies during its first four months on sale. 505 Games recently purchased the Ghostrunner IP from previous publisher All in! Games and has since released a content roadmap detailing the new game modes, premium cosmetic packs, new bundles and the Ultimate DLC to come later this year. All of these should help the game’s revenue to increase during 2021.

Control added another €16.039 million ($19 million) in gross revenue over the last six months, primarily on Steam. The company’s figures show the game has managed to earn just under €60 million ($71.2 million) over its lifetime. Despite this, Remedy still doesn’t consider the game to be “a major hit” although they do concede they’re “really happy” with its success. Sales of the game managed to give the developer its best ever year financially despite not releasing a new game throughout 2020.

The Bloodstained franchise added another €3.293 million ($3.9 million) in gross revenue over the last six months. The latest title in the franchise, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 was released in July and will have contributed the majority of that income, although Ritual of the Night has also been involved in numerous promotions during that period too. The latter was considered by creator Koji Igarashi to be the “starting ground for the next step” as he made the game into a series, so we can likely expect more content to come considering the franchise’s continuing success.

Other titles to sell well include the PC version of Death Stranding with €23.192 million ($27.6 million), Assetto Corsa with €8.969 million ($10.7 million), Terraria with €4.377 million ($5.2 million), and Payday 2 €.278 million ($2.7 million). The publisher still retains a stake in the latter despite selling the IP back to Starbreeze, but they won’t have anything to do with the upcoming Payday 3 as Koch Media has publishing rights to that title.

[Source: Digital Bros via ResetEra]

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Speaking to Games Industry, CEO Tero Virtala said that Remedy’s future goals include creating “several successful games, and at least one major hit.”

“We’re really happy with the success of Control,” said Virtala. “It won Game of the Year awards, it has sold over two million units and continues selling, but two million is not yet a major hit in our industry. When we talk about major hit games, we’re talking on an industry level – that’s what we’re aiming at.”

To put Control‘s sales number into perspective, Alan Wake sold three million copies and the original Max Payne sold four million. Virtala pointed out that the games industry underwent a number of changes since these two games released, and subscription services like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass provide new ways to reach a wider audience. And it’s because of this that a team within Remedy is still working on Control two years later.

Elsewhere during the interview, Virtala revealed that Remedy has four teams split between five games. The Control team is also working on the studio’s “next big title,” one team is working on Vanguard, a third team is working on a single-player campaign for Crossfire X/HD, and a fourth team is working on two unannounced console and PC titles funded by Epic Games.

[Source: Games Industry]

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Control: Ultimate Edition is for both PS4 and PS5 owners, allowing you to experience the definitive package of Remedy’s hit game. It contains the complete main game with all quality of life updates, as well as both The Foundation and AWE expansions. Concrete Genie is a PS4 title that also has a VR compatible mode, though PS5 players can still experience it via backwards compatibility on the console. Destruction AllStars is a multiplayer destruction derby title from Lucid Games, and it will remain available as a free PS Plus game through March as well, to give more players an opportunity to try it out. On April 6th, however, the price jumps up to $19.99.

Remember that you don’t have to download the games in order to redeem the free games. You don’t even have to have a PS5 to add them all to your library. If you’re still looking for the next-gen console, make sure to add them to your library anyway via the browser-based PlayStation Store in order to have a pre-built collection of next-gen games ready to play. As long as you have an active PlayStation Plus subscription, you’ll have access to your full library of free games.

Next month’s PlayStation Plus free titles bring even more games, with four new additions (on top of Destruction AllStars), making a total of five free games available in March 2021. Subscribers can look forward to Final Fantasy VII Remake and Remnant: From the Ashes on PS4, Farpoint for PSVR, and Maquette on PS5 (PS4 version not included) joining the ranks of the PS Plus free games collection tomorrow, but before then, make sure you have February 2021’s games locked down.

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