Even as Remedy plugs away on their newest game, Control, they appear to have other irons in the fire. it turns out that the developer has managed to secure the rights to a rather interesting franchise. As part of a press release detailing their financial health and plans for the future, Remedy also announced an acquisition of horror game franchise Alan Wake, which was previously owned by Microsoft. Well techically it’s the publishing rights they now own, as they already held rights to the IP. Let me explain.
Remedy previously released games in a variety of franchises like Max Payne and Quantum Break, this list of titles also includes Alan Wake. The original game was released in 2010 as an Xbox 360 exclusive. Then it was followed in 2012 by Alan Wake: American Nightmare for Xbox 360 as well. Both titles also got ported to the PC.
Currently no concrete details have been shared with the gaming industry at large as to why Microsoft shed the rights. Some fans suspect that things might have run aground when the game was pulled from various digital storefronts in May 2017 as the music licenses began to expire. And although the game did return to digital shelves in November 2018, gamers were still curious. And this vaccuum of information has led to some speculation on the behalf of fans of the Alan Wake franchise. However, don’t freak out just yet, as a sequel is not currently in the works.
Remedy announced that it has received a “one-time royalty income from previously released games” to the sum of 2.5 million euros. Remedy has noted that this “one-time income” won’t impact its financial results for 2019. Although the suspicion is that this windfall will allow the company to push into new game projects, they were quick to shut down sequel rumors, as well as clarifying what they can do with the rights they now hold.
A representative for the company said the following in a statement to GamesRadar,”The only thing we want to clarify, now that Remedy owns the publishing rights, is that we could bring Alan Wake to different platforms if we so choose. We have nothing to announce for now. We are fully focused on Control releasing on August 27th.”
This has predictably led to gamers hoping that the horror franchise will finally make the jump to modern consoles like the PS4, although this has not been confirmed.
