00:00Alan Wake and Control should have sold more, New Remedy's CEO says.
00:04I think Alan Wake 2 and Control ran into a really unfortunate mix of problems,
00:09even though both games were critically loved.
00:12The biggest issue is that Remedy makes games that are kind of slightly too weird for mass market audiences,
00:18but too expensive to survive purely as a niche cult hits.
00:21With Control specifically, I think the marketing was vague, the story was intentionally surreal,
00:26setting looked visually repetitive in trailers, and people didn't fully understand what the game actually was.
00:32When it comes to Alan Wake 2, it launched as a full survivor horror game in an era where horror
00:37is popular online,
00:39but still relatively niche in actual sales compared to giant action RPGs or live service games.
00:44Also, let's not forget, Epic Game Store exclusivity on PC will limit your reach,
00:49no physical release at launch hurts your visibility,
00:52and the original Alan Wake wasn't a massive mainstream franchise to begin with.
00:56To summarize, Remedy games are heavily driven by atmosphere and storytelling,
01:00rather than endless replayability or social engagement,
01:04because they are highly curated single-player experiences,
01:07and they don't always dominate the internet the way huge live service or sandbox games do.
01:13That's what happens when you make games in an industry increasingly optimized for accessibility,
01:18scale, and engagement metrics.
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