Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 has now “recouped most of its development and marketing expenses”, CEO Tero Virtala has announced in a business review for January-September 2024. Speaking as somebody who would quite like there to be more Alan Wake games – or at least, moderately weird and pretty decent blockbuster singleplayer horror games – I am both pleased by this news and a little troubled that Remedy’s eldritch forest fable (which came out in October 2023) has yet to break even.
The review notes that the reporting period falls before the release of Alan Wake 2’s Lake House expansion and the Physical Deluxe Edition of the game. In other words, it’s possible that those releases have helped Alan Wake 2 make up the difference since today’s data was gathered.
The overall financial picture for Remedy seems to be heading in the right direction, i.e. upwards. Their revenue overall for July-September 2024 is up by 129% versus the same period a year ago, at 17.9 million Euros, resulting in an operating profit of 2.4 million euros.
Remedy have taken certain steps to shore up their books. Half of Control 2’s development is being funded by Annapurna, in return for the rights to expand the Control and Alan Wake franchises into film and television. The company have also recently taken out a 15 million euro convertible loan agreement with Tencent. They expect their numbers to improve further by the time of their next financial report.
The report also has a few updates on Remedy’s in-development projects. The recently revealed three-player Control spin-off shooter FBC: Firebreak will be a “mid-priced” game and is “in full production with a focus on iterating on the core loop and implementing more of the UI (user interface) for more player clarity based on playtesting feedback.” The Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes they’re developing with Rockstar are “making steady progress in full production”.
And then there’s Control 2, whose plot directions are hinted at by Alan Wake 2’s Lake House DLC. “Control 2 has progressed well in the production readiness stage and is on track to start full production during 2025,” Virtala adds. “Many of the critical features of the game have been implemented to mitigate production risk, and workflows and pipelines are being tested in preparation for full production.”
The original Control appears to have been a commercial success for Remedy, with four million units sold as of February 2024. In the same month, Remedy bought the rights to self-publish future Control games from the original game’s publisher 505 Games. In the latest financial review, Virtala offers investors the cautionary reminder that Remedy’s Control projects are going to make less money for Remedy at first, as there’s no publisher chipping in, but stand to make more after release, because there’s no publisher taking a cut.
Here are my blundering questions, as a financial bignoramus: 1) is Alan Wake 2’s commercial showing in line with Remedy’s expectations, 2) if it isn’t, what steps are they taking to ensure they can carry on justifying the development of eccentric spook-a-wrangles like this?