Remedy has released its latest business review, in which it discusses a bunch of its upcoming projects, and confirms that the studio's "next major game launch, Alan Wake 2, [is] taking place as planned in 2023."
The studio hasn't been making an enormous amount of money in the last year, unsurprising given it hasn't released anything new, though there's still tens of millions flowing through for the development of its various projects.
The lion's share went towards Alan Wake 2 and Codename Condor, a Control spinoff that "remains in the proof of concept stage" says CEO Tero Virtala. Codename Condor is going to be a co-op game, writes Virtala, with its core designs "being prototyped and the gameplay already in this early phase feels fun. We are giving the team time to work on a multitude of important game design elements and finalize the key pillars before moving the project to the next development phase."
Also in development alongside Codename Condor is Codename Heron, "a bigger-budget Control game" that is in the concept stage and is likely to be a direct sequel. Don't expect it anytime soon though: early development has apparently gone well, and the team is now being expanded but remains moderate.
Vanguard is likely to be the licensed property, and also stands out here as not being named after a bird. This is a free-to-play co-op game that's going to be co-published by Tencent, and development is going to take longer than Remedy initially believed. It's staying in proof-of-concept stage though ultimately aims to be "an expansive service-based F2P game with a rich world and selected new elements, making it a game that stands out from other multiplayer games."
Alan Wake 2 is in full production and will launch as planned. "There is still a lot of work to be done, but the game is coming together on all fronts," writes Virtala. "User testing continues and the feedback from the user research has been encouraging. After seeing how the elements are coming together, I’m confident we will launch an excellent game."
Remedy's expectation is that, from Alan Wake 2 onwards, it will release new games in both 2024 and 2025, all accompanied by either or both free and paid DLC. Notably absent from this briefing was any mention of the Crossfire singleplayer campaign Remedy had been working on, probably because it isn't very good, though it's clear that Epic's interest in Remedy has allowed the studio to significantly expand its project slate. We'll find out whether that results in the excellent Alan Wake 2 everyone's hoping for soon enough.
