Polygon:
It felt like Alan Wake 2 was coming. Remedy even created a functioning internal prototype. But then the game, like its fictional protagonist, simply vanished. Here's a look at the game that almost was.
Choosing Epic over Steam and antagonizing the entire physical media fanbase, it's no wonder the masterpiece Alan Wake 2 didn't make a profit.
I asked for this game as a gift. My wife couldn't find it at Gamestop, Amazon, or anywhere else.
I didn't realize it was digital only, I just figured it sold out because of the reviews and how good it looks.
Most consumers don't read gaming news daily, how would they know it's digital only?
Plus, outside of seeing it on Jackfrags YouTube channel, I hadn't seen much in the way of marketing.
It's a really good game. I platted this one on the PS5. Well worth your time exploring this universe.
Unfortunately Remedy has become a bit of a nasty studio over this past decade, You just need to look at their business decisions and other projects they attempted. They are not pro consumer at all.
Yea, people are kind of dumb. I mean, no offense to @Jingsing up there, I know that’s blunt but it reminds me of Bayonetta 2 when that got announced and it was a Nintendo exclusive. It’s exclusive because f*cking Nintendo funded the development. But people were all like f*ck Sega for sh*tting on their fans when in actuality the game never would’ve gotten made if Nintendo didn’t straight up pay for the development.
Alan Wake 1 was not a massive seller. In fact, correct me if I’m wrong, but it underperformed and that’s why a proper sequel never got made until now where Epic literally paid for the game to be developed… but you got people saying, Remedy isn’t pro consumer because this game is Epic exclusive 🤦♂️
Will be interesting to see if they try the same thing for the Max Payne remake(s). You'd think they won't but people continue to surprise me.
I think they could do some kind of special edition physical release. This way the crowd that has been with this game since the beginning would have the option to buy a physical disk. They would sell more too.
@anast No, it needs a normal physical release.....not some bullshit 'special edition' physical release. This way we will be able to easily get a physical copy for if we want, instead of having to mission to own some kind of limited version. That's not actually gonna boost physical sales now is it?
I wonder if they've learned their lesson? Who am I kidding, of course no gaming company does at this point. Keep making those mistakes.
Remedy has released its financial statement for the first quarter of 2024, and despite strong sales, Alan Wake 2 has yet to recoup its development costs.
Exactly.
With every article like this, I becomr more convinced that an announcement is inevitable. Hoping for something around the time of the game's 1-year anniversary.
I want to believe they are just hanging on to try and get the last drop out of the digital market but another part of me thinks it’s just spite at this point, not wanting to admit their business move was a f***** terrible decision
They made out it was because they wanted to offer it cheaper to us but me and others would have gladly paid the standard for physical. Even a collectors edition would have been nice to buy.
Absolutely. What would the harm have been? Offer the digital version at the lower price they want, and a "Collector's Edition" with some fairly naff additions for 50% more. I'd have gone for it without question.
Bringing it to Steam would definitely help too. Although I suspect getting a physical release is probably more likely, and even that doesn't look good.
Waiting on steam release otherwise no buy. And I would double dip to get physical for ps5 or XSX but remedy have to first admit there is a problem before a solution is made available
definitely waiting for steam version, I never buy a game on another storefront at all.. even gamepass games I'd just try for a bit then buy the steam version if I like it.
Not sure at this point a physical release makes sense. Would you even recoup enough lost money on the costs to get the game released physically. Mots who wanted to play the game did not sure you would sell enough copies to recoup the costs to get the game out physically.
Exclusive games.... The cancer of modern gaming. Only corporate friendly husks root for exclusive games as a model.
What were they expecting.. release digital only and make there money back, come on! they shot themselves in the foot alienating all the fans of physical media.. now the hype has gone down it will be difficult to shift copies now even if they do release disks. Only way of making extra $ release on ps plus
Blows my mind someone would pass on obtaining a game they wanted to play just so you can have the case and a game disc that is already out of date to the current live version. The boxes upon boxes and totes full of game and game related accs and hardware when I moved made me grateful for all the digital stuff I had.
Alan Wake 2 is also just not that good. Its the sequel to a good but not great game to begin with and the case board "gameplay" was terrible and there wasn't enough combat. Also the live action stuff looks really cheap and Sam Lake didn't need to put himself into alan wake 2 for no reason.
Lol. I imagine there's still alot of people that buy physicals. Or atleast see what kind of new games are out by what they see in real stores. This is on them. Idda paid 70 day one physical. Now I won't pay more then 15 for it
I'd imagine significantly more than 40% of PC gamers also only buy games on Steam.
Maybe a crazy remastered Steam release will launch alongside the RTX 6070 or something once the Epic Store's gone for good. EGS is basically a Fortnite launcher that also sells games with an unreasonably amount of missing features. Alan Wake and Fortnite have absolutely nothing in common either. I can't imagine this sold well and there's no way Epic would ever fund something this big ever again. Basically though; when Fort dies, EGS dies and I hope a Steam release will come after so this game can get the audience it deserves.
I bought a 360 for AW1 and have been waiting years to play AW2 but I just haven't had the ability to buy it yet. I was gonna "steal" it but I just felt too terrible about it half way through the intro. I've since just stopped caring. I'm patient
Remedy has made a couple of changes to its core management team with the goal to grow Alan Wake and Control into larger franchises.
Changes like not being anti consumer? putting out Alan Wake Remastered on disc but not the sequel?
I'm ready
I wish Remedy had the capacity to create two AAA games at the same time because while i am super pumped for Quatum Break, i would also love a sequel to ALan Wake.
I hope after the release of Quantum Break, Microsoft would greelight the development of Alan Wake 2.
Microsoft should have funded this if there is one thing they need is games and great exclusive ones like this. I'd have bought a console for this, alongside sunset overdrive halo collection and quantum wotsit.
I want 2 so bad :{
this would be a great sequel to have on xbox one, please bring it!