Alan Wake 2 Trapped in Financial Dark Place, 'Most' Development, Marketing Costs Recouped

It saddens me to hear this if only because it means many people didn't play the game. Words can't explain how amazing this game is- I'll be playing through it again with the PS5 pro patch this month feeling bad for those blissfully ignorant of its magnificence.

I surely hope they eventually recoup all their costs and make a profit. Remedy is too talented of a studio to not deserve it, not to mention Alan Wake 2 is amazing and deserves all the flowers in the world. I'm rooting for them.

Release it on Steam like it should have been and make money. Sticking with idiot Tim Sweeney and Epic is just bad business. That guy is more worried about his little ego than anything else.

I bypassed their consumer unfriendly, digital only debut. Once they broke and released the physical disc version of the game that should have been there at launch, I had no problem giving them my $70.

One of the most overrated games last year. Bored me to death, and tried so hard to convince myself to keep plodding through the game but gave up half way through. There were many issues the press did not cover. The enemies did not play a significant role in the game at all; You could easily skip them. The game play mechanics were awkward and I never found any joy in the fights. Alan's mind place and Saga's evidence board were counter intuitive and totally unnecessary. Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge remedy fan as witnessed by my profile picture, but I have to admit they dropped the ball badly with this one. I'm happy this game is struggling. It might make them reconsider their approach and go back to what made me and others a fan in the first place.

The game being an Epic Game store exclusive is a massive killer. It should be on Steam.

@Balaam_ Agreed, they should of released it Physically Day one

Skipped it at launch because of the digital-only release, and will wait now until the physical copies go down in price.

The lack of a physical presence at retail stores & being Epic exclusive on PC doomed this game from the start, they got no one to blame but themselves on this one!

Man so very much hope for Alan Wake 2 to make profit sooner rahter then later. Its such a cool game.

Going on Epic store and not having physical release on consoles really hurt what is already a pretty niche game :/

Its sad cause its actually a pretty phenomenal game.

@FantasyExplor3r88 "huge remedy fan" that's simultaneously praying on their downfall for one's own gratification. Sound

I bought a physical copy day 1 after the ill-advised decision by their publisher to release digital only. Not Remedy's fault that happened, not their call. Talented group of people.

I think now they've released the physical version they'll be fine.

I will never pay full price for rented games. But its a hard time to make games profit. A COD or FIFA are games that coast on their name a GTA is a massive brand with even more money behind it.

@FantasyExplor3r88 Glad I'm not the only one. I went in expecting to love it, and really tried liking it, but as you said, the mechanics where crap and the story forgettable. I really hope they don't mess up the Control sequel, which I hope will sell better!

Sadly, even if they do some day recoup the costs, it will still be seen as a loss due to the opportunity cost. It will be considered that the profit they could have made from going with a more populist genre is in the loss column.

Now, I say “sadly”, because it’s a very much needed single player game, but I haven’t played it myself. It could be crap. But I and many others will never know anyway because it released digital only and has remained double the price I would consider suitable to give it a go (never falling below £42 at this current time).

Now if it would have released physically I might have got it more cheaply, even second hand, which, if they made a great game, would have then meant I buy and sequels, or even similar games from the same dev, day 1. It’s happened with many series in the past. But obviously they were not confident enough in their own game and franchise at release.

@FantasyExplor3r88 If they are your favourite publisher then you should root for the games success, no? Wishing someone to fail just because they didn't make a game to your liking is crazy and very short sighted

I would have bought the base game at release if it was released physically. Now that the the game has released physically it’s $80 with DLC and I can’t get a standalone version like people could when the digital version was released. This rubs me the wrong way. I don’t like this weird release method and it’s off-putting. It’s been so long now I can wait a little bit longer for a used copy of the physical edition. Even though I’m eager to play it, my excitement has died down, and there’s plenty of other games to play until I can get it cheaper.

Steam really wouldn't have changed much imo. It didn't help FFXVI recently. PC gamers are cheapskates who only buy games on deep sale.

The game also wasn't very good as a game. Great to watch but every moment of actual gameplay was terrible. It was no Control that's for sure. Add the weird SBI nontroversy (again manufactured by PC Gamers) and this game just would've struggled regardless.

@kcarnes9051 I can't believe how expensive the physical release is (in Australia at least) for a year old game. Cheapest copy $109 (retail $129), uh wah? Sure it has DLC and virts but normally (well in the beforetime) a year later that would have been a game of the year version at a nice price.

I just can't get into it. Played the first o e wothout dlc as the dlc didn't grip me. Second game I'm still at the beginning but cometely lost as to who the characters are and whats really going on. After that my interest declined rapidly.

This game is just confusing as hell, that‘s why people say it‘s so creative. Super overrated

Dont feel pitty for them. They tries to force people to buy a digital game. I bought the game the day it came out on disc. They deserve to suffer for their actions. I hope they wont do the same crap with max payne and control 2

Hell man, if this were EA or something that title would be "Still Hasn't Recouped." Not that I care. Just funny.

@Absymbel Yikes, those prices are ridiculous. It just seems like a miscalculated decision from the beginning, and they’ve tried to make up for it by forcing the physical ultimate edition on top of keeping the price as if it’s a new game. Or maybe that’s been the strategy all along. None of us can really run the numbers of it to know if it would have actually been better for the consumer and the developers simultaneously had they released the physical from the beginning. Regardless, the outcome feels manipulative.

I can't shake the feeling that they would have done much better if they had released the physical version on the same date as the digital version. I want to buy the physical version, I really do, but I'm waiting to do so in the future. If it would have been released at the same time as the digital version when the hype for this game was at its largest, I would have bought it.

@Lavishturtle Release it on Steam like it should have been and make money.

I read that Epic payed for the development of Alan Wake 2. I'm getting older and I can remember ATI (original GPU manufacturer) gave $6million towards the development cost of Half Life 2, and the game came bundled with some ATI graphics cards like the Radeon 9700 Pro, lol. Expensive business for sure, I personally don't like exclusive deals I much prefer multi-platform but getting the funds and forking out the dosh can be risky business. Some called this game Alan Woke 2 because of the Saga Anderson white lady turning into a black lady, I watched AW2 worth-a-buy video for the lols.

@kcarnes9051 At the time I thought it was a bit of a test for a major release but they did let it go on a bit too long as digital only so maybe something contractual with publisher (it's almost 12 months to the day). Black Myth didn't take long to get a physical release (not that it has shown up yet) but interesting comparison.

People acting like digital only hurt them, isn't that 80% of sales nowadays?

Discs are leaving.

@LN78 I can think of numerous games of this generation that are way more overrated than Alan Wake 2. In fact from last year alone, I would say Baldur's Gate 3 is way more overrated.

Isn't this an old story?... I mean literally... AW2 has been struggling financially as an investment. But from what I understood, Remedy tend to bet on the long tail. I have to say, from a stock-holder perspective, that must be infuriating... but perhaps from a quality gaming perspective, this is the way it should be (ie make a game that lasts more than the release/marketing window).

I enjoyed the game - but if I'm being honest - there were a lot of things that actually annoyed me about the design that I felt detracted from the gameplay. It's very creative, but I also think it's not actually the most innovative game. I would prefer Remedy put a little more effort into their gameplay, rather than taking all the stuff they apparently (I assume) are taking to make these games.

Then again... Sam Lake's dance moves are pretty intoxicating.

@species on Epic store.

Maybe in the future Remedy Entertainment will have to have multiple shareholders to pay for the development? where do you get the funds to pay for game development? At the end of the day Epic Games paid for this game so they have the right to decide the contract, also, Epic is mainly PC with their own Launcher and PC digital store.

@EchoRange I actually think that's a reality (being someone that buys mostly physical), I think it's a bit much to say that the proportion of people NOT buying it because it was digital only would have made a huge difference.

I bought it digitally (because they didn't offer a physical release)...if anything, I'm more annoyed at Remedy now that they've released a physical version so long after. I would have been happier to buy physically... I don't think THAT many people didn't buy it just because it wasn't physical.

Enjoyed it enough but I’m now convinced that that survival horror is not for me. Bounced off RE4 remake. I’m more hoping for an excellent Control 2

@Absymbel the physical release is basically the complete edition (including the DLC)... so yes, it's a one year old game, but you're also getting the 2 expansions, and a few "knock-up" add-ons.

Whether it's worth the price-tag. If I hadn't bought it digitally I'd say hell-yes... but I actually don't (or physically can't) buy a physical game that wasn't available at launch. Whether it's Epic's fault or not... it just leaves a bad taste.

@RaiLiOn So I was like you with BG3... I really didn't want to buy a digital version (even though it was only hinted there was a physical version on the way)... and then when they announced the physical version I had pre-ordered it within maybe 6-12 hours (which is not to bad coming from the other side of the world)... and then had to wait about 6 months due to constant messing around and mis-information (or no information). So while I think Remedy should have put a physical release out on console, I think they at least have gone the right way (through retailers, rather than the Larian-direct path).

@zhoont I'm still stuck in the subway level and have been for a year. I'm out of ammo, lost and can't get out alive and the save slots in this game sucks big time. So I have yet to see how great this game really can be ... I mean, all the clues, and the Case board, it's all so confusing.

I didn’t want to buy the game when it was digital-only, but now it has a physical release I’m tempted. But frankly, at 70€ the price point it way too high for a one year old game. I’ll wait until I can grab it at 30€ max with all DLCs included.

Can't wait to play this game but won't play it until its on a huge discount. Huge majority of gaming fans (if not 99%) can't afford to buy too many games at £70 a pop, so there will be casualties and those casualties will always be the niche/ less known games, no matter how good they are.

It will eventually break even / turn a small profit I imagine once holiday sales are factored in and it gets added to streaming services down the road - but the digital only strategy at launch definitely seems to have hurt the sales potential for this game

I hope all you subscription and "I'll wait for it to be on Gamepass" people are listening.

Good games get made more often when they make money

The same game that they made an Epic Store exclusive and took a year to release physical editions on console?

Pardon me while I don't get upset that their anti-consumer BS didn't pay off.

What did they expect? It was a sequel to a moderately-known game that released 13 years prior. They made the PC-version exclusive to the Epic Store, and they initially refused to release a physical version for consoles.

Remedy always seem to get screwed over by their publishers, one way or another.

@thefourfoldroot1 the game is financially unsuccessful, if only the released it in a way that allowed me to pick it up second hand, allowing them to get zero revenue for my purchase, it could have been a success!

i wish they had released physical also but your argument is one of the reasons they did the digital only release lol. I'm not even completely convinced that a physical mass release would have helped. I'm a physical buyer and I just got it digitally anyway. plus it would have increased the budget that they already are struggling to make.

also, if you're not willing to put £42 in to try something that cost the studio 70 million to make, I dunno, just kind of a weird way to be. either stuff is worth your time and money or it isnt, seems like you've made your mind up that this isnt.

Currently playing AW2 and loving it, picked it up on the EGS for dirt cheap with all the DLC and it has successfully scratched the spooky itch.

The way it folds in the FBC just makes me even hungrier for Control 2, I do also wonder if the Max Payne games will be folded into the Remedyverse with the remakes.

@Rob_230 the news last week was that 70% of all sales are now made digitally, with the number going up every year.

I also wish it had been physical but I dont think it would have pushed the needle.

not only is it only 30% of the users, but I am one of those users and I picked it up digitally so I wasnt even a lost sale.

I did my part I bought it digital on release day and bought the physical copy too when it came out. Amazing game, deserve much much more sales. But people buy and play COD, Fifa, Fornite and live service games instead, and we are moaning and complaining about why developers playing safe with their new games...

@StonyKL at £70 a pop

There have been 2 sales on ps store for the base game at £39.99. Base game on ps store now is £49.99 and as far as I know it's always been that price, dlc or addons at £15. Epic Games store is £39.99 for base game and £15 for addons/dlc. Alan Wake 2 Deluxe Edition disc version inc night springs and lake house and some cosmetic items and Alan Wake remastered for £59.99. Alan Wake 2 Deluxe Edition on ps store now is £64.99.

Bought it on release to support the studio. I’ll eventually get to it but felt like the right thing to do in this climate. People wishing it to fail beggars belief

@breakneck XVI also released a year after the console version. AWII was day and date. It's not a suitable comparison.

"Delayed" Steam releases do worse than day and date. if people have waited a year for a game, they often lose interest or will just wait longer for it to be cheap.

AW2 is a banger. Looking forward to Control 2.

I played the first one and thought it was just ok. Community reception seems divisive on the second one too, and it seems a fairly niche psychological survival horror whodunnit adventure with extremely high production values.

Combined with a digital-only initial release, the news isn't really that surprising. It's also still very expensive on digital and physical, too much for me to take a punt on it.

Hopefully the Max Payne remakes will give them a nice cash injection.

@Starkei Max Payne remakes will give them a nice cash injection.

Didn't Remedy Entertainment sell the Max Payne IP to Rockstar Games/Take-Two Interactive? I know Rockstar Games developed Max Payne 3 for PS3 Xbox 360 and PC (I played the PC version).

Played this game at release last year, but had my playthrough ruined by weird/wild bugs. Never went back to replay this one.

@FantasyExplor3r88 for me it was a huge downgrade from the 1st Alan Wake. Hell you could literally drive cars in 1. The mission areas felt bigger, 2 feels like set pieces. The story was very weak, the addition of Saga, felt forced, etc.

Oh my. This was a sad for me. Such an amazing game,as i said many times,a few games that i really enjoyed playing. Is the poor sales is because of the digital only? I hope the recent physical release will boost the sales. I adored remedy art and it’s lore

On the gravestone mourning the loss of the gaming industry the words shall read:

"I'll probably just wait for a sale"

• Here lies every game developer that ever tried. People stopped supporting them, and so, they died.

@EchoRange @LordAinsley those are overall numbers, for single player games they often sell better physically than digitally, or at least as well. It's online multiplayer titles and deep discounts on things like PSN sales that skew overall sales heavily in favour of digital.

I don't mean to knock Alan Wake in any way or form, haven't played either of them so have no opinion on their quality.

But from a business/investment standpoint it's a bit strange how so many games keep underperforming. Isn't it common practice to do market research, to have analytical data that points you to the amount of customers/platforms interested in your product and then set a budget in relation to that number?

Are the gaming industry infested with bad market researchers? Aren't the market reacting how the industry think? I mean a personal "artsy" low budget title is one thing, but big budget games that needs 10's of million of $$$ wouldn't get investors unless there's some paperwork to support it's viability.

I have questions. 😋

In the end, it's not on us to support game developrs. It's on them to make good games we want, isnt it?

No ill will to Remedy and I do sincerely hope they bounce back.

I hope so cos it's a gem of a game but I think given how this struggled to recoup dev costs I doubt we'd see an Alan Wake 3 now.
If people thought it was the game to hang cos of lack of physical why didn't they turn up when Remedy released a more complete version physically?
I think we're going to see more and more game series die if we focus more on the YouTube drama of the week over the quality of the game itself.

@LordAinsley right but that’s over time, launch window sales are often much closer between the two

@torquex they sure did. The remake is a partnership with Remedy developing and R* financing and publishing. Remedy get a percentage after R* make their costs back. Similar to their deal with Epic who funded Alan Wake 2. Its a much more mainstream IP though, so hopefully they will get a decent amount from it and much quicker.

Between Epic exclusivity, no physical release, and sweet baby, they have no one to blame but themselves.

@breakneck Just objectively not true. If you actually use steam and look at the top sellers, it's basically always whatever the most Recent AAA release was. And steam definitely would have made a difference, as epic games store is an awful platform that many refuse to use

@LowDefAl Does that matter? A sale is a sale right?

@themightyant sure but its nebuleus. i recommended this game to a few people and I think one person bought it.

I recommended titanfall 2 to a bunch of people and noone bought it.

I mean, maybe I'm not very persuasive but I dont think it pushes the dial.

I am pro-physical by the way, and pro-second hand game sales!

I just unfortunately dont think if they launched physical the small market of people who are:
people into survival horror, people who are interested in the niche alan wake franchise, people who buy physical, people who are so anti-digital they will refuse to buy something if they don't offer a physical version and people who only buy second hand games and dont buy them new...its got to be like a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of sales you're missing out on.

My thoughts are that this is a combination of issues that has nothing to do with the quality of the game.

Firstly, it is a sequel to a cult hit, but arguably a cult hit that never quite hit the mainstream and was also developed at a time when games cost a lot less than Alan Wake 2. So such a lavish game had to go that bit further.

Secondly, it is, in my mind, one of the first AAA full price console games not to release physically. Now, whilst digital does make up a large percentage, there is still a player base that prefers physical and you also lose presence on online stores like Amazon and shop fronts. It is not in their interest to market your release. Releasing it NOW in physical at full price misses the release window and the media blitz that comes with a new releases.

Lastly, Epic man - c'mon. People are not ditching their Steam libraries for Epic exclusive games since PC gamers are notoriously good at waiting for games. Just look at the sales for PS4/PS5 games on PC.

So out the bat you have a niche legacy sequel, that ditches a percentage of purchasers with a lack of physical and PC Platform preference.

It probably doesn't help that it's a sequel to a very niche decade+ old game that was also exclusive to one platform for a long time. Just sayin.

@LordAinsley
There are differing ideas on whether a franchise will make more long term by gaining more fans, even at a lower initial price. There are also differing ideas on whether the second hand market impacts legit sales given those people willing to pay £10 are not the same people as those willing to pay £60 a particular game and are excited about it’s release (when the vast majority of sales are made). That debate is boring by now though.

All I can say is that the only games I buy day one are ones I’m confident in because I’ve played their games earlier releases, usually through borrowing off mates or buying second hand. Anecdotal I know, but then I was only giving my personal feelings anyway.

They need to just admit it flopped and move on.

Time is marching on and staff are still employed so costs will always continue, you can't just say in two years time "we've made our money back!"

Business just doesn't work that way.

@zhoont I didn’t play and now don’t plan to given the waning interest and the space the game occupied. Looks amazing and I love the lore, but my reason for not playing at launch was simple: not buying digital copies knowing full well they’ll eventually release physical. And by then I moved to PC.

I got burned by BG3 from this and never again. That’s also why they didn’t make as much as they should have. Stop making bad choices with releases and you’ll make more money. That’s it.

@themightyant you're right about echo chambers.

this sites comment section, myself and yourself included, would prefer games to be released physically, however digital sales and no disc consoles say that we are in the minority.

@carlos82 great point, I'd like to see a sales breakdown but that would make sense. I buy single player games physically every time to sell the game on when I'm done.

@thefourfoldroot1
i get your point. however this is a sequel, with 2 previous games in the franchise and is also billed as part of the Control universe, a game that won numerous GOTY awards and was highly reviewed. The studio made Max Payne. At what point are you being won over?

If I was making games, I wouldnt bother catering to you as it requires releasing numerous games that you will not pay for before you'd consider dropping any money, in which case you're going to wait for a sale. You are basically only going to accidentally have games targeted to your taste through luck.

People complain about Concord, but sales figures probably showed Sony that game was worth making. Your opinion (and I reckon there are loads of great games that you like) doesnt register to companies looking for game ideas because you dont pay for anything!

They certainly dont read our various gripes on message boards like this! They look at the Fortnite bar going up and sell to those customers.

@LordAinsley this has a nice breakdown for Europe with some data between platforms and types of games, which is why I always find it annoying when the overall number is reported without context. Even the Insomniac leaks had Sonys own games selling just 35% digitally overall for the leaked period
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/how-digital-is-the-video-games-market-in-2024

@torquex Did you read my comment? I didnt say they dont have the right. They can do whatever they want.

I just said thats one of the reasons why the game failed financially.
People hate Epic store.

@themightyant yeah, to me it seems and Sony (and the rest) keep cherry picking numbers to help encourage people into believing physical is dying and make them think about switching to digital. As ultimately, all publishers would much prefer to be 100% digital

@carlos82 @themightyant Super interesting. I know the percentage only went up 1% the last year. Which is bad, but its slow growth. Slow enough that it could swing back imo.

The Pro definitely shows they prefer a digital future.

I picked up the physical edition here recently and am playing it now. I am really enjoying it. It is a high quality title, and it is very sad to see it perform so poorly from a sales standpoint. I think marketing is hard to get right for a title like this. It deserves so much better. I highly recommend this if you are even remotely interested in this game.

@carlos82 I'm not sure Sony is cherry picking numbers to convince people, they are reporting how their revenue is split in their financial reports.

They have access to much better data about how many users actually use discs that isn't in those financial reports.

Knowing how many consoles have had discs put in them is a more useful metric as to if they should support physical media than how many digital games they sell because many people use both, and that number isn't affected by various variables like sales or digital exclusives.

@LordAinsley
Well, I wouldn’t say I don’t pay for anything. I buy every Yakuza/Like a Dragon game and spin off for example, and that was through getting one of the games on plus and having the chance to try it. There are numerous franchises I could say the same about too. The thing that unites them are they are great franchises. I feel publishers are just looking for a quick buck rather than building something great. Devs / publishers should have to earn your money, and if that means selling a game at heavy discount after the first 6 months then that’s what they should have to do.

I bought this game in 2023 and finished it during the holiday break and I've got to say at the time I wasn't really impressed other then the visuals and atmosphere It didn't quite live up to the hype. But then this month I did a full replayed (final Draft) once the lake house DLC dropped and it really is a master class in horror and narrative direction and design. Sure some plot points are a bit ambiguous and derivative but once you just stop trying to figure things out and let the story take you... its pretty neat nothing else like it.

@thefourfoldroot1 I'm sure there are some good examples of it but Yakuza is such a bad example of you're trying to argue devs aren't looking for a quick buck. They release a game every year with the same city and mechanics. I guess you could argue they build something great by jamming in an additional mini game every year

@LordAinsley
I wasn’t arguing that. Although I’d take a game every few months from them. I was just giving an example of where sacrificing up front income can lead to many more sales. Which is absolutely what they did not do in this case. Digitally only with no sales does not make them more money in my opinion.

Very disappointing from gamers not buying this, when a company actually tries to be bold instead of copy pasting endless sequels.

I think the "2" harmed it. A large chunk of gamers were little kids when the first one game out. So in a story based game they might feel "I never played the original so won't understand the sequel, so there is no point".

The remaster of the first one was a good idea to break that, but I don't get the impression it sold in large numbers. There wasn't much hype and my friends didn't care.

Easily my favorite game of this generation. Sad that it hasnt recouped yet, but I can imagine it will have a long tail on it. I bought mine on xbox, beat it twice and cleared all the dlc, but plan on doing the same again when my ps5 pro arrives this week. Why? Because i can play aw2 over and over and still enjoy it.

@LowDefAl But Steam also got a massive price cut to incentivise PC players.

@Rudy_Manchego It wasn't full price though unless you bought the Deluxe edition. They in fact kept the price quite cheap for the base edition