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Remedy has recouped 'most' of the development and marketing costs of Alan Wake II
- Thread starter cormack12
- Start date
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Pretty sad when I’m always hearing how small the budgets of Remedy’s games are.
Epic funded the development, so one day Remedy will make money off it.
Epic funded the development, so one day Remedy will make money off it.
Isn’t this typical of remedy games. They are never massive profit plays. They build them efficiently on relatively limited budgets, and make relatively limited returns, but enough to keep goin and making more of the things they want to make, and tell the stories they want to tell, even if they don’t have mass market appeal. This is something that should be lauded 
Dr.Morris79
Gold Member
If it wasn't for them White assholes deciding things this game would have made a Billion million!
HogIsland
Member
What's to celebrate in good work going under-rewarded?Isn’t this typical of remedy games. They are never massive profit plays. They build them efficiently on relatively limited budgets, and make relatively limited returns, but enough to keep goin and making more of the things they want to make, and tell the stories they want to tell, even if they don’t have mass market appeal. This is something that should be lauded
mayham2199
Member
For Remedy, yes. They've been operating like this for a long time and they are still around so something is working here. I don't think they care about being millionaires as much as they care about just making the kind of games they want and getting to do the job they dream of.
It is being rewarded. They are a studio that's been around since the 360 days. They are making money and doing what they love. What more reward do you want? Do they need to all be millionaires on top of it?
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TheInfamousKira
Reseterror Resettler
Considering the revised standard for games lately (i.e. if you launch without tripping on the gate and landing face first on a double barrel shotgun) I'd imagine nearly breaking even after a year is the new AAAA.
pasterpl
Member
They said they have almost recouped the AW2 costs, so they are not making money on this game yet.
The artful mincer
Member
You guys realize this game has from now till the end of time to make a profit right?
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Your decent selling retro shooter or metroidvania is probably more profitable than AW2. And they sell for $20 and almost all will never be giant sellers.
Somehow they can figure out how to make money.
Somehow they can figure out how to make money.
Danteyke223
Member
People oddly shit on Remedy , but i actually have to say hats off to them. They keep making deals to stay afloat and not compromise on their artistic vision ( yes i know sweet baby inc yada yada ) but actually playing the game their influence might just be a potential race swap.
Control was great and i think the reason they’re going for the Max Payne 1-2 remake is to have more of a passive income. Plus that horde shooter
Control was great and i think the reason they’re going for the Max Payne 1-2 remake is to have more of a passive income. Plus that horde shooter
What’s to celebrate is that Sam lake has generally, quite consistently chosen to ignore pushing for higher profits by compromising his creative vision. Would it be better if the things he wanted to make were more popular and made them more money. Yes. But many studios would have simply changed their vision to maximise profits. They haven’t, and that should be celebrated.
HogIsland
Member
true of literally every videogame so i guess they're all hits
Yeah, have the same question. Kinda silly to sugarcoat something what is barely isn't a flop.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Business wise it's lousy.
But even ignoring that and just considering gaming, it's not working either. Sam would get a lot more gamers enjoying his games if he expanded his wings a bit. AW1 wasnt a big seller to begin with. About 3-4M copies over a decade, including bargain binning and pack in bundles with Xbox 360.
His vision will collapse entirely one day if no big companies partner up with him to fund their games because it seems over 25 years of making games, Remedy hasnt saved enough money to make one game on their own.
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nowhat
Gold Member
"We guys" do. Whether the shareholders feel the same remains to be seen. This is always an issue with publicly traded companies.
Gen.Grievous
Member
Bought it at full price, it’s a fantastic game. Don’t really care it’s only in the epic store. I even got 10% cash back because of a store promotion. In the end it’s just a launcher and if you don’t care about any of steams social features it’s not any different than playing games on steam. I do hope their agreement with epic is for a time though, the game deserves to make a good profit for them.
intbal
Member
So does Daikatana.
But that's not gonna do Ion Storm any good.
So. as time goes by, the games sells fewer and fewer copies AND sells for a lower sales price.
So let's say the game breaks even mid next year. From that point on, it will only be selling a small amount every month, at a lower sales price each month. So profits will be drastically smaller than if they were made now, And even once it breaks even, Remedy will STILL be splitting revenues/profits with Epic, taking in a much much much smaller share.
Yes, that will be revenues with no effort from that point in time, but inflation (Remedy's ongoing operational costs - rent, salaries, healthcare etc) is going to eat into that and reduce it to a pittance.
It is better to earn monies up front vs when they tail off, especially if you are not your own publisher.
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The artful mincer
Member
Only in the digital age and not for certain games named after fast aeroplanes...
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I'm convinced alot of people at "these companies" DO NOT know how the market works. And make terrible decisions all the time.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Gaming is a project based industry too. So as long as a studio gets funded to make a game over 4-5 years, if you think of it from an employee perspective youre good. As long as you dont totally fuck it up, the studio doesn't have to worry about sales and profits until years later when it launches. So you can kind of coast and not worry about it. If the game bombs, ya worry. But during the project they are getting paid and everyone at the company waits for the game to release in 2027 kind of thing.
Traditional companies that have ongoing sales, and new products that are made cheaper and faster dont have that luxury of a pile of cash to float the boat for 5 years. There's pressure to always be selling and shipping stuff 365 days a year. Any new products get added to the pile of another 500 products. So there's always urgency to get things right and adjust as you go.
That's why IMO I think many game makers dont really give a shit how good or bad the game does. Bosses included. Many are contract based or float around to new games or studios so often, there's a good chances theyve already moved on to another project before the one they finished their task even launches. Theyve lost interest.
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mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
So who is to blame for what you just typed?
nial
Gold Member
That was produced by Epic as well.
The Cockatrice
Gold Member
Mostly lol. It has 0 legs on Epic store and most sales are prolly from console.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Probably a bit of everyone.
- Company's with too much money spending it like candy
- Bosses who dont know what they are doing or care
- Regular employees who do the same
Its kind of like sports. Team owners have big budgets and trust the lower bosses do the right thing and sign the right players at a reasonable price. Coaches and players signed to big multi-year contracts. Some do well and care. Some got the money and dont give a shit anymore. But either way they got the money. Gaming employees I dont think are under 5 years contracts (maybe I'm wrong), but when a game has multi year project covered already with a budget, you can kind of fuck the dog. As long as you dont do anything stupid to get fired for cause, you can kind of just a half assed job if you wanted to. If the game bombs, you might already working at a different game anyway. Or just find another job somewhere as the industry seems very transient in nature. You got your money working on a game for 3 years worth. You did your part and it's now the past.
Traditional companies arent like this because people are mostly FT workers with ongoing business and anything can happen at any moment. Expectations are sales and profits 365 days a year with monthly and quarterly targets. And in more detailed places (yes it happens), weekly check ins. And even daily check ins. No company tells the office floor "Hey, we got approved for 5 years worth of budgets".
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Dazraell
Member
I believe the deal they had with Epic on both Alan Wake Remastered and Alan Wake II had this clause where they will start getting royalties when the game will start being profitable. So yeah, Epic funded the whole thing, but Remedy is not getting anything out of the sales until game will recoupe its costs. They're mentioning it cause their financial reports are about Remedy's income, not Epic's
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Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
Tio Tim will fucking die before he puts this on Steam.
mayham2199
Member
It's funny because I've loved every game they've put out but I'm hesitant to get Alan Wake 2 because of some of the feedback it's gotten. The MP game looks horrible to me. Alan Wake 2 does look genuinely good though. It was going to be my first Ps5 Pro game but I've been really wanting to replay TLOU 2 again and I stopped because the pro was coming out with enhancements. Still not sure what I'm going to do.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Kerotan
Member
After 1 year it almost breaks even. Revenue from year 2 onwards will be profit. If legs hold it's a success.
StereoVsn
Member
IGN “journalists”. You forgot the quotes.
Also, not that the game still hasn’t made back dev and marketing cost nor did it make Remedy any $, this is also a missed big opportunity cost.
If they instead made say Control 2 and this time without Epic exclusivity, we would have quite a different situation.
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CompleteGlobalSaturation
Member
Perhaps next time save some cash by not paying Sweet Baby Inc.
FinalBossWithTheMostPower
Member
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Desperate for money.
No other big publisher or e-store operator offered them anything better because they knew making money off it wouldnt be tough.
It sounds like the deal is Epic gets all the money to cover all costs first. Then Remedy gets a royalty cut from extra sales. In other words, unless AW2 sells a ton (still hasnt broke even yet), they make no money except dev costs covered.
You can tell these kinds of deals are desperation because name one time in life you get a loan or mortgage and payment terms are every dollar you make at work gets garnished until payment is made in full. Then afterward when it's finally paid off the bank still gets a cut of your pay cheque seemingly forever.
Remedy knows sales of their games are sketchy for the budgets they put into it. So they do these deals to guarantee covering dev costs at the lost opportunity of big sales and profits. It's like a company doing a PS+ or Game Pass deal on day one because they'd rather get $500,000 straight up, then risk doing it themselves getting 70% of every copy sold which could lead to way more money if it's successful. It sounds like Remedy doesn't have a lot of money on hand to do this themselves across 25 years of making games, so they lock themselves into partnership deals on every game.
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SportsFan581
Member
For a smaller studio breaking even is the big hurdle, any future profits that can be added to that are icing. I'm sure they would have liked to recoup the costs quicker, but it's still good to hear that they might turn the corner on it.
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