Remedy's year in review reveals Alan Wake 2 has returned its marketing and development expenditures as Control 2 prepares to get weird once again.

Additionally, Max Payne's pair of remakes are progressing at a speed slightly faster than bullet time.

Though 2024 was a comparably reserved year for Remedy Entertainment, mired within parallel development upon Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake and FBC: Firebreak, in tandem Alan Wake 2’s cult chronicles continuing to expand in page count, its latter half sketched the studio’s future in auspicious terms. In late August, Remedy announced a strategic partnership with Annapurna pertinent to the production of Control 2 - the latter would finance 50% of the game’s budget in exchange for exclusive film and television rights to their nascent Remedy Connected Universe. Though all members of Annapurna’s game division, noted for their sound portfolio of indie ventures, would universally resign shortly thereafter, this agreement remained in place: the funding would arrive from their solvent film team - once $200 million in debt due to a string of distribution disasters.

Annapurna’s integrity may be questionable, particularly in recognising its foundation upon the Ellison family fortune and its gaming reserve’s hostile dissolution at the behest of holistic mismanagement, however Remedy - in retaining publishing rights to Control 2 - have evidently seized upon this influx of capital in a canny manner. Furthermore, with a €15 million convertible loan from Tencent (its debt will manifest as equity at a later date), the studio appear to be successful in securing their financial vigour to further their creative ambition.

Control II will arrive either as a coda to our current generation or a herald of its successor.

That a film or television programme will emerge from their pact with Annapurna is highly unlikely; perhaps Megan Ellison’s brother in David Ellison will claim Remedy’s property for his own at Paramount. Familial folly notwithstanding, the studio have carved a comfortable niche: their recognition has not translated to direct revenue, yet it has served to coalesce their sensibility into a mainstream object of fascination. Last I reported on Alan Wake 2’s profitability, the team claimed the title to have recouped its respective development and marketing budgets - this standing has not changed since. Regardless, the simultaneous debut of its physical release and its second DLC in The Lake House has renewed commercial interest, particularly within this spookiest time of the year. Notably, the latter presaged the concerns of Control 2, exhibited through a visit to the Oldest House and a meeting with its protagonist’s brother in Dylan Faden. This manner of promotion serves both a diegetic and practical purpose, portentous and promotional in equal measures.

Regarding FBC: Firebreak, a cooperative first-person jaunt through the Federal Bureau of Control, the studio are currently “iterating on the core loop … implementing more of the UI” - indeed, essential elements to a successful service title. Along with partnerships predicated upon promise, Firebreak is a conditional agreement with their audience: this exercise in genre gamesmanship is a tantamount play for commercial sustenance and creative ideation. As Max Payne 1&2 Remake and Control 2 will ostensibly arrive in 2026 and 2028 respectively, Firebreak must sustain interest in their burgeoning multimedia universe, furthering their storytelling through uniquely emergent means. Trios are tasked to extinguish rogue threats within the Bureau’s phantasmagorical parameters; fostering a fondness for its milieu will draw greater attention to its single-player kin.

Among their contemporaries, Remedy are a curious, yet merry band of contrarians. Their constitution as a public company ensures they are honest to their investors, producing commercial titles bearing genre elements in vogue: Alan Wake 2 is a moody survival-horror in the vein of the Resident Evil remakes, Control is a Metroidvania conceived to pioneer ray-traced lighting, and FBC: Firebreak is a madcap yarn portraying the plight of a lethal band of misfits left for dead. The date of this article’s publication, a peak of approximately 70,182 people played Left 4 Dead concurrently; 2,822 were engaged with PAYDAY 3. There is a perpetual appetite for cinematic, riotous cooperative experiences - Remedy will deliver this experience on a silver platter that may subsequently manifest itself into a glistening eldritch terror. However, each of these titles has a particular air of otherworldliness, presenting themselves slightly adrift from the zeitgeist. Their market is both hermetic and accessible; one can begin at any of these games and recognise their idiosyncratic tone. Max Payne, moreover, is odd: its pulp austerity is complimented by outstanding acrobatic acumen and comic interludes, oscillating operatic and outlandish.

Remedy’s games are in conversation with one another, the player, their controller, and all facets of audiovisual media in an irreplicable respect. Larger studios may surpass their scope, though none reserve their ambition. Thus, if you are looking for a project this weekend, why not brew yourself a steaming cup of black coffee and shine a light upon Alan Wake? Once you reach Control, its tapestry of telekinesis and metacommentary will burn significantly brighter.