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Alan Wake, Control developer agrees €15m convertible loan from Tencent

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
Rose-in-Alan-Wake-2.jpg

Alan Wake and Control developer Remedy has entered into a €15m convertible loan agreement with technology conglomerate Tencent. This type of loan is an agreement that can be converted into a predetermined number of equity shares at a later date.

Tencent's loan is still to be approved by Remedy's Extraordinary General Meeting, which is scheduled to be held by 24th October. Following its approval, Tencent will "have the right to convert the loan into new Remedy shares in accordance with the terms and conditions of the convertible rights" three years after the drawdown.
"Part of Remedy's long-term strategy has been to strengthen our position in the value chain, to have more control over how our games are commercialised, and to grow our share of the value these games can create," Remedy CEO Tero Virtala said today, in a press release detailing the loan.

"As we move towards self-publishing, this financing will support us in developing and fully realising the potential of the games we have in development and successfully carrying out the commercial activities of our next self-published games."

The studio exec said Tencent's investment in the company "demonstrates strong confidence in Remedy's long-term vision and strategy".
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Made a deal with Epic Games, making them exempt from releasing on Steam

Now you go and take money from China?

Kevin Bacon Good Luck GIF by PeacockTV
This company is similar to Bungie. Which ever company is willing to partner with them with funds or a buyout, they'll sell out. A mercenary company.

At least Bungie can go alone and be third party doing their own thing if they really wanted to. It's just that the big companies get tempted to partner up because their GAAS and shooter history is too big to ignore.

Remedy looks like if they go it alone, they'll go broke as their high production value games dont sell great. So they always need that financial backing. EGS deals are the ultimate in wanting frontloaded payouts in return for giving up more sales potential across all platforms and e-stores. And remedy is the kind of company that will do that.
 
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Rivdoric

Member
It's a fucking loophole for every AAA studios these days.
You get subventions to push "agendas" into games that turns not profitable because of that which in turn forces companies to get more subventions to produce more failing games because of lack of liberty.

Genius.
 

Plague Doctor

Gold Member
This is a weirdly low amount for a loan respective to a company their size and profile.

Ughhhhh this usually doesn't mean great things behind the scenes. (Edit: meaning they need to cover a gap in payroll, keeping the lights on, etc. )
 
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Kataploom

Gold Member
It's sad Remedy's games are not more successful. Given the quality and production value of Alan Wake II it deserves so much more.
They don't if they make bad decisions like EGS exclusivity, which I understand due to Epic funding AW2 development but it doesn't mean it's not a bad decision anyway
 

Alan Wake

Member
They don't if they make bad decisions like EGS exclusivity, which I understand due to Epic funding AW2 development but it doesn't mean it's not a bad decision anyway
Without Epic, no Alan Wake II. That's just the way it is. They tried for many years but found no funding for the sequel. I'm just glad it finally happened, but I think they handled the digital/physical edition thing very poorly.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Without Epic, no Alan Wake II. That's just the way it is. They tried for many years but found no funding for the sequel. I'm just glad it finally happened, but I think they handled the digital/physical edition thing very poorly.
And I agree that it's almost the only EGS exclusivity I have nothing against, but it doesn't change the fact they could have probably handled that better, the whole distribution is a mess
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
It's sad Remedy's games are not more successful. Given the quality and production value of Alan Wake II it deserves so much more.
Maybe make games people want to play and they'll sell better.

They put a lot of emphasis on production values, story, actors and mo cap etc... AW games, Control, Quantum Break.

Skimming wiki, their best selling game is AW1 which sold 4.5M copies by 2015. And thats a game that got bargain binned and even included in some Xbox 360 console bundles.

Their games are similar to Hellblade. But not as bad as those Ninja Theory games are like 80% cinematics. But lots of plot and cinematics. Low on gameplay. There's a market for that. But most gamers dont care even when the game is on steep discount. I dont think too many people cared about Quantum Break having hours worth of cut scenes and TV show clips.
 
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rapid32.5

Member
Remedy has been consistently making great games with mild sales, so I am trying to understand why they couldn't get more success in terms of sales.
Many devs spend millions and make nothing out of it and publishers continue funding them.
 
Control was made for a $35 million budget. Remedy are extremely conservative with their game budgeting.

That's insane I had no idea it was that low. Control was fantastic and still looks great. Big devs need to head over to that company and figure out what the secret is.
 
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Peroroncino

Member
Here's hoping they don't fuck up Max Payne remakes, that's pretty much the only project of theirs I care about now.
 
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proandrad

Member
Tencent laying out a trap card to buy Remedy cheap, after Control 2 becomes a EGS exclusive, underperforms, and they can’t pay back the loan.
 
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They're currently making Max Payne remakes so are they're presumably not self publishing them? Surely they don't have much else in development do they?
 
Tencent laying out a trap card to buy Remedy cheap, after Control 2 becomes a EGS exclusive, underperforms, and they can’t pay back the loan.
It's not a loan to payback though it's for shares in the company.

They're currently making Max Payne remakes so are they're presumably not self publishing them? Surely they don't have much else in development do they?
Control 2 and I think an MP game based on Control also.
 
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Jaybe

Gold Member
Maybe make games people want to play and they'll sell better.

They put a lot of emphasis on production values, story, actors and mo cap etc... AW games, Control, Quantum Break.

Skimming wiki, their best selling game is AW1 which sold 4.5M copies by 2015. And thats a game that got bargain binned and even included in some Xbox 360 console bundles.

Their games are similar to Hellblade. But not as bad as those Ninja Theory games are like 80% cinematics. But lots of plot and cinematics. Low on gameplay. There's a market for that. But most gamers dont care even when the game is on steep discount. I dont think too many people cared about Quantum Break having hours worth of cut scenes and TV show clips.

I’ve heard Alan Wake 2 is a horrendously boring and poorly paced game. It apparently has a section where you look for papers and move them around for 30 minutes. These guys should just do movies if that’s what they really want to do. Same with Ninja Theory.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
so I am trying to understand why they couldn't get more success in terms of sales.
Well, their recent games appeal to enthusiasts, not the broader market so the sales reflect that.

There's also this which had a negative impact on the games' sales potential on PC.
 
I’ve heard Alan Wake 2 is a horrendously boring and poorly paced game. It apparently has a section where you look for papers and move them around for 30 minutes. These guys should just do movies if that’s what they really want to do. Same with Ninja Theory.

I just have to voice my opinion. Alan Wake II is awesome.

The environments are immersive, the story is compelling, it has interesting puzzles which the player must solve using inferences to solv The survival-horror elements are powerful but slightly muted on the normal setting.
It uses tropes from tv, movies and music to move the story forward in novel ways.
My one complaint is the use of shock cuts they use for boss battles and the death sequences. Not a huge fan, as they can just be hard to take.
I imagine Remedy pushes the limits on what the player can physically handle. I cannot play Control for too long because it gives me a headache, the sound is just too much. The same with these shock cuts.
 
Well, their recent games appeal to enthusiasts, not the broader market so the sales reflect that.

There's also this which had a negative impact on the games' sales potential on PC.

It sucks that they always seem to make deals like this and force their games to be cut off from a huge part of their audience. It was the same with the first Alan Wake. Control was their first game to go everywhere (eventually) and it was very successful for them.
 
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