Alan Wake 2 dev calls 2023 “challenging year” after sobering results

Remedy is optimistic for 2024, though

Remedy Entertainment, the developer behind last year’s critically acclaimed title Alan Wake 2, posted its financial results for 2023. Revenue decreased by 22.2% compared to 2022 with an operating loss of €28.6 million Euro (around $31m USD).

This is despite Alan Wake 2 becoming the fastest-selling games in Remedy history with one million sales by the end of 2023. The company stated that the game “has already recouped a significant part of the investments made by Epic Games Publishing” and that it expects it “to be a meaningful revenue and profitability driver for the year.”

Explaining the numbers, Remedy referred to its increased investment into Control 2 as well as the project known as Codename Kestrel – previously known as Codename Vanguard. Remedy had revealed previously that Vanguard was rebooted and the project heavily changed, which is another large cost factor.

Remedy Entertainment remains optimistic for the future / Remedy Entertainment

It reported that the development of Control 2, Codename Condor, and the Rockstar-financed remake of Max Payne 1 and 2 were going well. All three titles are expected to enter the next of their development stages in the first half of 2024. Remedy also revealed that the Max Payne project has a similar budget to Alan Wake 2, therefore identifying it as one with great potential.

“With the refined multi-project model in place, increased focus on Remedy core strengths and the dedication of almost 400 Remedians, we are thrilled with a great lineup of upcoming game launches,” CEO Tero Virtala summarized. “2023 was a challenging yet remarkable year for Remedy. Having acquired the full rights to Control, Condor and Control 2, we can now make the right product and business decisions focusing on long-term franchise growth for both Alan Wake and Control. We continue the year 2024 with great enthusiasm, more focus, and plenty of determination, and we expect this to be an exciting year of growth for Remedy.”

In February 2024, Remedy announced that it purchased the full rights over the Control IP from 505 Games, the publisher it worked with to release the original game. Virtala called this “a significant positive step” in the financial report and explained: “While 505 Games was the right partner in 2017, the franchise and our ambitions have grown since. We see that the way to grow the Control franchise is with a different business model and a partner.”

It looks like Remedy will make some very important decisions in 2024 when it comes to precisely those two areas – business models and partners: “We will specify the Outlook for 2024 when the decision for the business model and the potential agreements for Control 2 and Condor have been made,” Virtala ended his forecast.

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