Alan Wake 2 Hasn't Turned a Profit in 6 Months

[M0nsterB0y]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror...ts-in-control/

In the recently released Business Review for January-March 2024, Remedy CEO Tero Virtala wrote that—although it had sold 1.3 million copies at the start of February—the company had only recouped "a significant part of the marketing and development expenses" for Alan Wake 2. A significant part, but not all. Virtala pretty much reiterated that in a subsequent earnings call, where he also mentioned that Remedy had experienced an operating loss of €2.1 million in Q1 2024. Though it's worth mentioning the company did buy back Control in that time.

Which is a shame, as Alan Wake 2 was undoubtedly one of the best games of 2023, and certainly deserved a quicker turn to profitability than it's apparently gotten. Virtala doesn't seem too pessimistic about it, at least (then again, things probably have to get quite bad for the CEO to start screaming 'the end is nigh' in earnings calls), and notes that sales for the game have "continued with a high average price."

Idk, I thought that whole musical/dance thing that they kept doing was cringe. Later on they got associated with Sweet Baby as well. Idk if the "horror is a niche genre" excuse is gonna work here since we've seen horror games like Resident Evil recently sell really well.

[CrimsonSteel]

Looked like woke trash. Also found it ironic and tragic the Alan Wake voice actor was sidelined in what became his final appearance in a video game before dying.

[WHChampion]

Another Sweet Baby success.

[freeburn]

Was never my type of game but if they had put it on gamepass I'd have at least insatalled it to try for the gfx on pc

[JayJ350]

Seems like these kinda games peak early, like their initial sales account for about 90+% of the consumer interest. With all the attention and backlash on SBI/DEI involvement lately, it's probably going to be hard to win over a lot of people beyond that initial sales audience. Especially given how badly they fumbled on this being an actual Alan Wake game, he's been sidelined making it less appealing to fans of the character. Metal Gear Solid 2 managed to get away with something like this, but then again they didn't have anything like the SBI controversy either, and it was a totally different era when people were far less informed about games before making purchases.

[FallOutBrah]

uh oh, better put in some dlc to milk that fanbase quick! isnt modern gaming great?

[ProSaibot]

I mean, they didn't release a physical copy.

Alan Wake is the type of game which is known by hardcore gamers but is more aimed at average consumers.

Hardcore gamers don't buy digital crap unless it is an Indie game, and normies need to be exposed to the game in order to be bought otherwise they don't know it exists.

Half of marketing is basically seeing this on shelves. They messed up by not releasing a physical copy. Also being woke, didn't help

[LtGoose]

Did not read, post cliffs

It has to do something with physical vs digital

[SirFapsAIot]

alan wake

more like


alan woke

[OneLegSquats]

alan wake

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alan woke

This
Thats the number 1 reason no one cares about it anymore. Control was a much better game

[M0nsterB0y]

The way journalists hyped up this game back in late 2023 you'd think it was selling like hotcakes like BG3, Phantom Liberty, Zelda, etc.

And now that it's been associated with Sweet Baby, it's gonna be more of a hard sell.

[BraneyGumble]

Idk, I thought that whole musical/dance thing that they kept doing was cringe. Later on they got associated with Sweet Baby as well. Idk if the "horror is a niche genre" excuse is gonna work here since we've seen horror games like Resident Evil recently sell really well.

Not sure anyone was looking forward to it in the first place, AW1 sold okayish at best, and only after getting a Steam release. This one's an EGS exclusive on PC.

Can't really recall any hype/marketing campaign either, just some journos creaming themselves over the game for...a week or so.

[freeburn]

Idk the gameplay looked boring as all hell, I figured most people bought it via pc for the tech demo

[ohiostate124]

Didn’t they race swap a character from the first game but left her relatives the original race or something like that? Lol nah I’m good.

[JayJ350]

Didn’t they race swap a character from the first game but left her relatives the original race or something like that? Lol nah I’m good.

Yeah the female lead was supposed to be some white European woman, they race swapped her for some black woman that resembles someone running SBI.