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

solecon64

Member
The first two Max Payne games were such a huge part of my childhood growing up, I could easily see them in my top 10 games of all time. It definitely hurt to see the brain rot infest Remedy in such a horrible way with their latest game, but I have no sympathy for them now.

They made their bed, went looking for that amazing new audience, now they have to turn to begging for China money and soon losing their independence. Good riddance.

The brain rotten deserve every single bad thing that happens to them.
 
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Neilg

Member
This is a loan for them to move into self-publishing, they even say so. it's not an emergency payroll loan, it's a 'lets handle all marketing in house and keep all the revenue' loan. It's a good move.
If it succeeds, it means tencent own a smaller % of a much higher valued remedy - and it fails to increase their value, it means tencent might become a major shareholder. but the second option is definitely better than letting EPIC send their games out to die.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
This is such a lazy take. The quality of a game is not always reflected on its sales and vice versa.
Quality of a game is subjective.

If gamers thought remedy’s movie games are such high quality they’d buy them. People have no problem buying other high production value, highly scored games like Sony SPs, From software games, wukong etc…. But remedy games always struggle for sales.

They don’t because the gamer base spending $70 US for a game that is half cut scenes and boring gameplay is small.

A game like balatro which is a poker deck builder looks like it could be made on windows 3.1 has sold over 2M copies. That’s going to be in the ballpark of many remedy games. That’s because people like it for the quality gameplay not the crude graphics. Remedy’s focus is the opposite. High production values, but low gameplay.
 
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Kataploom

Gold Member
So which decision should've been made in order to make AW2 happen?
I'm not sure, maybe they had no choice but making AW2 available on other stores like GOG or even Steam after 6 months or after 1 year if certain sales expectations were not met within that time would help the game, but I guess we're too far from retraction anyway. Anyway, I have nothing against AW2 in EGS, just that it's one of the reasons it doesn't sell enough, it's literally the first Epic tries to attract players without dirty exclusivity issues but by actually making the game exist
 

simpatico

Member
Now here me out. What if the former influence over the decades, led to the current western influence. ;)
I guess I mean if they put the same influence into our games that they put into their domestic messaging. Which is pretty basic traditionalist nationalism. Which they are most certainly not.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
I guess I mean if they put the same influence into our games that they put into their domestic messaging. Which is pretty basic traditionalist nationalism. Which they are most certainly not.
You misunderstood. The influence won't be to strengthen the nation like theirs, but rather weaken from the institutions on up.
 

Miyazaki’s Slave

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
Where else do you expect them to get any money?

The EU is busy taxing and fining every tech company that exists so they can make ends meet and the US is in the middle of riding a giant wave of inflation that is crashing directly into a nice fat recession.

Many* investment firms do not see short or long term growth for investing in "entertainment media" so you gotta' drum up dat cash where you can.
 

Begleiter

Member
Chump change as far as Tencent is concerned. This seems like it's part of a bold strategy from an otherwise mediocre developer. I can't foresee it paying off.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Where else do you expect them to get any money?

The EU is busy taxing and fining every tech company that exists so they can make ends meet and the US is in the middle of riding a giant wave of inflation that is crashing directly into a nice fat recession.

Many* investment firms do not see short or long term growth for investing in "entertainment media" so you gotta' drum up dat cash where you can.
All going well according to plan.
 

Danny22

Neo Member
A game like AW2 would never have been a financial hit. It's artsy fartsy. You can make a game cinematic but the gameplay part needs to be top-notch. Like Sony games. Or better yet, Remedy's own control.

Control was a new IP, and had a slow start but made it up later on. And if they make a normal sequel similarly focused on gameplay, I do think they'll finally have a financial hit on their hands. Hell,the gameplay is so superb in that I think Condor (Control's MP) could be a financial hit if it was released on all platforms including steam. Yes, its really that good.
 

Braag

Member
Remedy has been desperately trying to stay afloat as long as I remember. Their games rarely sell well and it's in part due to their own weird decisions.
 

Markio128

Gold Member
Remedy will be okay as long as they remember to make fun games.

But Alan Wake (awake)? It isn’t as clever as they think - it’s just sounds like a B Movie. I’m certain the name has put off the casuals.

What next - Tommy Watt? Simon Hite? Mary Inge?
 

Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
If they ever decide to put their games on Steam I'd be happy to support them.
They're my favorite developers and I'm on the same page. I'm never using the Epic store.
Everything but Alan Wake II is on Steam, and hopefully future releases from them won't be published by Epic.
 

Alan Wake

Member
I'm not sure, maybe they had no choice but making AW2 available on other stores like GOG or even Steam after 6 months or after 1 year if certain sales expectations were not met within that time would help the game, but I guess we're too far from retraction anyway. Anyway, I have nothing against AW2 in EGS, just that it's one of the reasons it doesn't sell enough, it's literally the first Epic tries to attract players without dirty exclusivity issues but by actually making the game exist

It did launch on Xbox and PlayStation too, though. Question is why it didn't do better on console.
 

Alan Wake

Member
Quality of a game is subjective.
Yes and no. Alan Wake II is objectively better than Gollum, for instance. But I understand what you're getting at. Remedy keeps making the games they want to make, and I'm happy they do. This industry needs studios that do their own thing. But it's a business and they can't keep doing it forever if they don't make enough money. See what just happened at Don't Nod after Banishers and Jusant didn't live up to expectations (two great games, btw). Now they're apparently pausing some riskier projects and making safe bets.
 
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CuckMeister

Banned
Next time make a proper Alan Wake game and stop making us playing with other random npc nobody gives a shit about. I mean what's with these moronic devs side lining the main characters out of their own franchises ?
 
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EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
Don’t release on the platform most enthusiast are on PC. Don’t release the physical version for the enthusiast on console. Game sells poorly.
Surprised_Pikachu.jpg
lol yessssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been saying this shit for the longest time, I was even going to buy it day 1.
 

pqueue

Member
Control was made for a $35 million budget. Remedy are extremely conservative with their game budgeting.
you do not take out a loan like this with interest rates as high as they are right now for funsies.

Remedy games do not make big money. Their financials have not been positive for a few years now.

Alan Wake 2 has not made them any money (profit) to date.. Their current operations are being funded by the remake work on Max Payne.
 
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.
Well gamers only care about big IPs or open world games, its not really surprising.
 

PJX

Gold 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
This is such a shit take. If Epic doesn't fund the game then it doesn't get made. No one else wanted to fund the game. A bad decision is them just sitting there twiddling their thumbs while their staff sits there and not get paid. You people on this forum are funny as fuck. I would love to see some of you clowns run a business.
 

Joramun

Member
People want original games and unique experiences with amazing graphics and atmosphere, yet they don't buy AW2. Go figure.

It should've been on Steam and it will earn back it's costs eventually, but it's a sad situation if games like these don't sell enough. It means more crap like Fortnite will be made instead.
It's because the narration and story is woke garbage. Thank sweet baby inc for that



People are not supporting games where sbi is involved. Especially sequels.

Gamers want to game. We don't need pandering and garabge lefty activism while gaming. We get enough of that from corporate mainstream media, social media, school, university, walking around city streets and others

Stop buying sbi games because they're here to ruin the games industry

 
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It's because the narration and story is woke garbage. Thank sweet baby inc for that



People are not supporting games where sbi is involved. Especially sequels.

Gamers want to game. We don't need pandering and garabge lefty activism while gaming. We get enough of that from corporate mainstream media, social media, school, university, walking around city streets and others

Stop buying sbi games because they're here to ruin the games industry



Has nothing to do with that. Alan Wake wasn't a huge seller even when it originally released. Remedy wanted to do a sequel and MS told them no and wanted something new from them. I hear Spiderman 2 being called woke garbage and SBI involvement and that game still sold millions.
 

Griffon

Member
Sam Lake's head is so far up his own ass, I don't think it's possible to course correct.

The Max Payne remakes sound more and more like a last desperate attempt at survival. It might actually work, but then will Remedy learn the right lessons from that?
 
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March Climber

Gold Member
hq720.jpg


Maybe this time, when they're forced to make another campaign for a popular shooter franchise from Asia to make up for this monetary loan, that game can possibly stay purchasable for more than a mere 6 months please?
 

buenoblue

Member
This is the reason why Remedy games never make Remedy money. They are always doing weird deals and partnerships. But then they don't get all/any of the profits
 

rapid32.5

Member
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?
Annapurna partners with Remedy on Control 2, but who knows if this collaboration still exists after Annapurna has been disbanded.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
This is the reason why Remedy games never make Remedy money. They are always doing weird deals and partnerships. But then they don't get all/any of the profits
They probably make these deals because it's the only way they can get funding to keep making games. Having to float millions of dollars in anticipation of a payday 5 years out is probably tough without a publishing deal or debt. It's amazing that they haven't been fully bought out by a larger company by now.
 

buenoblue

Member
They probably make these deals because it's the only way they can get funding to keep making games. Having to float millions of dollars in anticipation of a payday 5 years out is probably tough without a publishing deal or debt. It's amazing that they haven't been fully bought out by a larger company by now.
Yeah true. I suppose if you are owned by a first party or publisher you wouldn't get all the profit either.
 
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