Today, Remedy released its latest quarterly report for the period between October and December 2023. Despite the successful launch of Alan Wake 2, which was the fastest-selling game ever made by the studio even launching in a highly competitive release window, Q4 2023 marked a decrease in both revenue and profitability compared to 2022 due to significantly increased investments in the other game projects and to the impairment charge cost (€ -7.2 million) related to the reboot of the free-to-play Project Vanguard, from now on known as Kestrel.
Still, Remedy revealed that Alan Wake 2 has now recouped most of the investment made by Epic Games Publishing. As such, the Finnish team expects the game to be a 'meaningful revenue and profitability driver' for this year.
Remedy CEO Tero Virtala also talked about the future plan now that the studio owns the rights to Alan Wake and Control.
With Alan Wake and Control, we now have two established franchises, and our ambition is to grow them into franchises that have high brand recognition, a steadily growing user base, more regular cadence of sequels, and an ability to generate revenues and profits at a high level.
Control 2 continued in the proof-of-concept stage. In the fourth quarter, the team worked particularly on world-building and combat. Codename Condor continued in the production readiness stage and the team focused on combat and game mechanics. Both games have proven fun and engaging game play.
Max Payne 1&2 Remake also continued in the production readiness stage. The team made considerable progress throughout the year. Max Payne 1&2 remake is going to be a major new game with great potential, enabled by a similar development budget as Alan Wake 2.
We expect Condor, Control 2, and Max Payne 1&2 remake projects to advance to the next stages of development during the first half of 2024.
Virtala even commented on the choice to split from 505 Games for the Control IP, saying Remedy's ambitions for the franchise have grown since the release of the first game. As such, they are now looking for a different business model and partner.
Meanwhile, Remedy will release two DLCs for Alan Wake 2, Night Springs and Lake House. Neither has a release date yet.