Remedy Announces Alan Wake 2 Sales Figures, Unexpected Details Around Control 2

By Elijah Gonzalez | November 19, 2024 | 12:20pm

Video Games News Alan Wake 2

Remedy Announces Alan Wake 2 Sales Figures, Unexpected Details Around Control 2

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During a recent investor event, Remedy Entertainment revealed that Alan Wake 2 has sold 1.8 million units thus far and that Control 2 will be an action RPG. As for the first point, these sales figures come after Remedy CEO Tero Virtala said the game had “recouped most of its development and marketing expenses” earlier this month.

With these numbers, we can calculate a rough sketch of how Alan Wake 2’s figures break down. Alan Wake 2 reportedly cost around 70 million euros, which roughly translates to $74 million. If we assume each copy is $60 and exclude discounts, platform holder fees, the decreased price point of the game on the Epic Game Store, and the increased price point of the Deluxe Edition, then 1.8 million copies equals roughly $108 million in revenue. Again, this figure isn’t quite accurate because platform holders tend to charge a 30% or so fee, and we don’t know how many of these were sold on PC via the Epic Game Store, where it costs a reduced $50 along with a lower platform fee. If we assume a 30% platform fee across the board, this brings us to around $75.6 million generated, which is right around the game’s reported budget. That said, I would assume if the game had broken even at this point, Remedy would have announced it during this presentation.

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The first Alan Wake got off to a relatively slow start in terms of sales but eventually moved around 1.4 million copies in its first year and a half before selling over 4.5 million by 2015. It was revealed during this investor event that Control, which was released about five years ago, has sold over 4.5 million units, with “over 19 million lifetime players,” which may refer to it being playable via services like PlayStation Plus. While there has been a fair bit of doom and gloom around Alan Wake 2 failing to recoup its budget so far, Remedy previously announced it was their fastest-selling game. And while it was almost certainly the most expensive thing they’ve ever produced, even compared to the recent Control which cost around 30 million euros, their CEO affirmed that they’re planning for a “more regular cadence of sequels” going forward, meaning Alan Wake 3 seems quite possible.

Beyond the Alan Wake 2 news, there were plenty of Control updates as well. For one, Control Ultimate Edition will be available on Mac as of February 12, 2025. The Windows and console versions of the base game originally came out on August 27, 2019. Beyond this, there will be a free Control update in early 2025 that will unlock “some previously released content” for all versions, likely referring to exclusive launch cosmetics and the like.

However, the biggest Control-related news is the reveal that the upcoming sequel will be “an action RPG.” Specifics weren’t disclosed, and it’s possible this just means that numbers will fly out of guys’ heads when you shoot them and that there will be more progression systems around unlocking Jesse’s powers without many fundamental gameplay alterations. Or it could indicate something more drastic, like the inclusion of RPG-style decision making. Anecdotally, when I talked with a member of Remedy’s press team at a convention years ago before the first Control came out, they mentioned that they wanted that game to be similar to Dark Souls in difficulty, so perhaps that will somehow be an even more direct influence going forward.

While Control 2 was announced back on November 11, 2022, it’s likely the game is still a way out, considering the studio just finished up Alan Wake 2 last year, has FBC: Firebreak, a multiplayer shooter in the Control universe, slated for 2025, and is also presumably working on the Max Payne remakes at the same time. We’ll likely get more details on what is means for Control 2 to be an action RPG closer to its release.