No matter how Quantum Break was going to turn out, I wasn't happy to see something from Remedy that wasn't a sequel to Alan Wake. The excellent, Twin Peaks-inspired thriller left us on one heck of a cliffhanger—not unlike its television influence—and the followup American Nightmare didn't really answer any of our questions. And instead of a sequel, we got Quantum Break, a half-video game, half live-action television show that our review says "has its moments" but is ultimately overshadowed by a handful of issues.
Well, in a recent interview with Eurogamer, Remedy creative director Sam Lake said that the developer had originally conceived the live-action, episodic format for an Alan Wake 2, but the studio's pitch was shut down by Microsoft.
"In the early concept of Alan Wake 2 that we took to Microsoft... there was the idea of it being episodic and in between having live-action episodes," Lake said. "That part they loved. They were like, 'This is a keeper, but... we are looking for a new IP.' They wanted to own that. Alan Wake is ours so that was off the table, so it needed to be something else."
Lake noted that, at the time, Microsoft was getting ready to make its big entertainment push with the impending Xbox One. Remedy's live-action concept fit nicely into their idea, and from there came Quantum Break.
As for what Remedy is working on now, that comes down to two different projects. The story mode for CrossFire 2, the sequel to free-to-play game CrossFire, and a project called P7. Remedy has called P7 a "cinematic third-person action game," but before you get excited by the similarities, the studio confirmed that it's not Alan Wake 2.
"P7 is not an Alan Wake 2—it's worth saying out aloud," Lake told Eurogamer. "But that does not mean Alan Wake 2, as an idea, is dead.
"I would love to [make Alan Wake 2.]" he continued. "We are not making Alan Wake 2 at the moment. We own Alan Wake, I feel there is value in Alan Wake, I would love to do more Alan Wake, but these things, they are more than just creative ideas: there is a business side to it. There are many things that need to click into place to make it possible."
Lake said that every time Remedy has taken an Alan Wake pitch to a publisher, it's felt like it wasn't at the right time or place.
"It has always felt like it would be a compromise for multiple reasons, and then we are not really doing the Alan Wake sequel we want to do... for us, Alan Wake is valuable, and if and when we would do it, we want to do it on our terms and make it the right kind of a sequel and not just do something, a compromise."
You can check out the full interview at Eurogamer.
