Alan Wake 2 Still Hasn't Earned Back Its Budget

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.

[-Foxtrot]

Well. They know what they gotta do…

[toxic-inferno]

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.

[-Foxtrot]

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.

[toxic-inferno]

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.

[Cacabunga]

physical release or go home Remedy.

[TheProfessional]

Alan Wake 2 isn't that great.

[_Decadent_Descent]

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.

[neutralgamer1992]

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

[darthv72]

i think its an Epic game though.... does Epic release games on Steam?

[notachance]

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.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Yeah, I'm waiting on a Steam version as well.

[wesnytsfs]

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.

[babadivad]

IMHO, it just wasn't that good. It's not as good as QB or Control.

[TheEroica]

Exclusive games.... The cancer of modern gaming. Only corporate friendly husks root for exclusive games as a model.

[seanpitt23]

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

[wesnytsfs]

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.

[darthv72]

I bet it would if they just pressed a few discs and sold them at retail.

[monkey602]

I still haven't bought it. Would have if it was physical though

[TheProfessional]

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.

[shinoff2183]

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

[Crows90]

You don't have to imagine
...still at least 40% of sales come from physical.

[Amplitude]

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

[Good-Smurf]

This game and Sonic Dream Team needs physical release fast.

[Relientk77]

I'm not buying it unless they make a physical copy.

[Seafort]

The game is Epic Store exclusive on PC and will never come to Steam. I and many others will not buy any game from Epic Store as we don't like their business practices.

I hope the game never makes any profit for them. If you abandon the Steam community, you lose a few million sales.

[VersusDMC]

Epic funded and published the game so it makes sense it's Epic exclusive. And probably why it's digital only.

But Remedy learned their lesson and are going back to 505 games to publish their next games. Steam and physical pretty much guaranteed.

[TechRaptor]

They've bought Control from 505 and split ways from them entirely right now and are looking for other publishers or partners.

[shinoff2183]

Hell yea 505 is the shit

[VersusDMC]

@techraptor

You're right.

I guess we hope it isn't Epic then. Remedy want a better publishing deal...but that's going to be hard when your last game hasn't broken even yet.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

Control didn't sell a few millions on Steam. Calm down.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Dead Island 2 just released on Steam so I bet this will as well down the line. It's likely timed exclusive just like Dead Island 2 was.

[RiseNShine]

If there's something Ubisoft teaches us, is always buy physical.

[Skuletor]

Are you referring to The Crew? I think even the physical copy is unplayable now.

[TheColbertinator]

Can I get a physical copy? Even the new Alone in the Dark got a physical copy and the game blows to high hell

[shinoff2183]

Does it?

Seriously asking. I'm probably still copping at 20 25 bucks though

[Kornholic]

Alone in the Dark is actually pretty decent. No need for hyperbole. Play the game for yourself.

[anast]

People are stupid. They locked out the only age group that cared about this game by making it digital only.

[RhinoGamer88]

It is perhaps my worst game purchase in the last three years. Walking sim with some find and place the clue bits.

[Knightofelemia]

Should have also released a physical copy as well I would have bought it. No physical copy no sale in my books.

[gleepot]

Yeah, there's a reason for that. And it has nothing to do with physical media.

[Kornholic]

Except it has a lot to do with physical media.

[Skuletor]

I'd say the group boycotting the game for being involved with a certain company, would be a lot smaller than the ones that would rather just buy physical copies of their games, than digital ones.

[purple101]

I reckon bit of both played a hand, in which proportions I couldn’t even take a guess
But deffo a bit of both

[ravens52]

It's dumb. What point are you trying to make by not making a physical copy. Just hurting yourselves 🤷🏽

[DOMination-]

It could also be that people aren't interested in Alan Wake 2.

Just a theory.. but I honestly think this only has a mystique around it because it was once exclusive. The first game reviewed well (83) but more-so "good, not great" and ultimately didn't sell great.

People revere exclusives more than anything, especially on internet gaming forums. And although Alan Wake is now multiplatform, the coverage it got back in the day mixed with a huge crowd of people who wanted to play it but couldn't makes for a powerful nostalgia trip when it comes to sequels.

[jznrpg]

I was interested but I don’t buy digital only games

[FPS_D3TH]

Steam. Release.

Guess we’ll keep getting this article monthly til then.

[Tzuno]

Well, it takes a tank PC to run it, no wonder.
Is not like everyone has money to throw on expensive GPUs and other parts
Want sales? Make it run on millions of machines and optimize it properly

[BehindTheRows]

That has far less to do with it. Cyberpunk takes a monster and has done well commercially.

The issue is who they locked out. No Steam release and no physical version currently has its fate sealed. Fixing those tow things is sure to turn some tides.

[HyperMoused]

Id be guessing the all digital and swet baby inc situation, affecting sales....having said that you can tell its had a heap of production, i think they put some dollars into this game....shame its a great game, the puzzles do get a bit tiresome after a few hours though

[shinoff2183]

Probably not as much as you think. Imma go with no physical and no steam.

[MrBaskerville]

Sbi situation wasn't a thing when it released. It's just a weird game and therefore a hard sell. Being boycut by people who dislike the fact that there's a black person in it, is probably not a huge factor. Sane people don't give a shit.

[MrDead]

"and swet baby inc situation"

The game is aimed at adults so the Tater Tots raging about a consultant company of 16 people are too young to make a hit to sales.

[Fist4achin]

Let's get physical, physical,...

[Pyrofire95]

A shame cause it's seriously incredible. Every Remedy game is fun, inventive, and have stories that are incredibly refreshing and told excellently. And it launched at only $50. People should have been eating this up.

[InUrFoxHole]

Ouch lol. I guess you get what you ask for

[jznrpg]

I’d buy it day one if they offered a physical copy

[Toecutter00]

The fact that there's 41 and counting comments all saying the same thing should show Remedy what a huge mistake they made. They left a lot of money on the table.

[shinoff2183]

Yep. A game of this magnitude should never have released without a physical release. It's crazy ridiculous at this point. Your exactly right about that table.

[AsunaYuukiTheFlash]

No physical release = No buy

[Ninver]

GOTY physical edition. Do it now.

[P_Bomb]

Found the game to be a bit overrated. At this point, just release it on disc, get your budget back.

[z2g]

everybody says "SINGLE PLAYER GAMES ARE THE BEST I ONLY PLAY SINGLE PLAYER!"
then one of the best single player games in years comes out and struggles to earn its budget.
sad. This game is amazing.

[gold_drake]

well, digital only was a major turn off for alot ofnpeople, including me. never bought it.

[Solitariussaint]

LMAO that's what all-digital will get ya.

[blacktiger]

It'll cost $100 million dollar team to come up with a plan called release it on disc, to get the money back

[PhillyDonJawn]

Bring it to gamepass

[lellkay]

P H Y S I C AL and i'll buy

[RiseNShine]

So much for the exclusive EGS deal, that went well.

[BlaqMagiq1]

Good. They deserve it for not releasing physical. Give it the disc release it deserves just like the remaster.

[Terry_B]

No Steam release for a digital only game? that was sooo dumb.

[MetroidFREAK21]

Waiting for the opportunity to walk into a store and buy it that way

[Lexreborn2]

So now that dead island 2 hit steam, I noticed that there is still epic store features baked into the game. In fact, on pc it still has you sign into an epic account, not sure if that’s for cross platform play between steam and epic. But makes me wonder if when AW2 hits steam will there be an epic store dependency

[GamingSinceForever]

Damn, and it likely never will at this point. 😔

[SpacedDuck]

I wonder how many people held off because there was no physical version available?

Shame because the game is excellent and one of the best out there.

[GamingSinceForever]

I’m sure there are some, but data shows that the majority of sales are digital for all games. So even with the physical missing the results are underwhelming. I bought it so I did my part and yes it was a great game.

[XBManiac]

Epic did not pay enough for exclusivity? And Xbox mkt funding? Maybe... it was mismanagement?