During today’s Capital Markets Day dedicated to investors, Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment has revealed new information on Control 2 and Alan Wake 2. As for the latter, we learned that it has sold 1.8 million units to date, which, however, isn’t enough to fully recoup all the development and marketing costs yet.
Control 2 is aiming far higher, with Remedy telling investors that sales of 3-4 million units would be required to fully recuperate a budget of €50 million (up from the €30 million spent on the first one) and go into profits. Part of the reason is that the sequel is being turned into an action RPG, whereas the original was an action adventure. Action RPG is a more marketable genre with a bigger audience. The first Control has sold 4.5 million units to date, while 19 million players have accessed the game in total (including, for example, Game Pass and PlayStation Plus subscriptions).
Control 2 was originally announced two years ago for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X. Back then, it looked like Remedy would repeat the successful partnership with 505 Games that gave birth to the previous installment. However, they completely changed the plan earlier this year by acquiring the IP from 505 Games for €17 million. Two months ago, we learned that Remedy had chosen a new partner, Annapurna Interactive; they would co-finance the game’s development while leaving the IP in the hands of the Finnish studio and also work on live action adaptations for both Control and Alan Wake.
Before Control 2, Remedy will launch its cooperative multiplayer spin-off FBC FBC Firebreak, which is being made on a €30 million budget, won’t cost full price, and will require three million units sold to be successful.
As a reminder, in addition to the multiple projects related to the so-called Remedy Connected Universe, the studio is also remaking its first two games, Max Payne 1 and 2, for Rockstar Games. Last we heard, the remake project entered full production three months ago.
