Summary
Alan Wake 2still hasn’t recouped its development costs despite establishing itself as Remedy Entertainment’s fastest-selling title to date, the Finnish developer has revealed. That disclosure was accompanied by some specific sales figures forAlan Wake 2, which look promising enough to suggest that the game will manage to break even in the near future.
WhileAlan Wakeis nowadays a cult classic, its sales were modest enough that Remedy spent years searching for funding for its sequel. The project finally entered active production in August 2019, after the studio struck a publishing agreement with Epic Games that also includedAlan Wake Remastered, released two years later. However,Alan Wake Remastereddid not sell as well as Remedy hopedit would.
The second game in the series appears to be doing much better by comparison, with Remedy justannouncingthatAlan Wake 2had sold 1 million copies as of year-end 2023, and another 300,000 units over the following two months. That makes it the fastest-selling title in the studio’s history, with the group specifying thatAlan Wake 2over 50% more copies in its first two months than its last flagship title,Control, managed in its initial four months on the market. Even so, the project has yet to break even, although Remedy assured investors that “a significant part” of its development and marketing expenses has already been recouped.
Alan Wake 2 Lifetime Sales
The studio also revealed that its latest title has sold three times more digital copies thanControlover the aforementioned periods. This achievement was helped by the fact thatAlan Wake 2was a digital exclusive. Remedy previously attributed the decision to forego the game’s physical release to a desire to deliver a AAA experience at a reduced price. For reference,Alan Wake 2retails at $59.99 on consoles and $49.99 on PC, a $10 discount compared to the typical contemporary big-budget games on those platforms. The game still appears to be on course to break even sometime this year, with Remedy saying it expects it to enjoy “excellent long tail sales.”
A great game can generate excellent long tail sales, and we expect this to be the case with Alan Wake 2 as well.
In late 2023, Finnish outlet Helsingin Sanomat reported thatAlan Wake 2’s budget was in the ballpark of $75 million, of which some $21.5 million was earmarked for marketing, citing analyst estimates. 1.3 million sold units ostensibly generated around $60 million in revenue, once storefront cuts are accounted for. The fact that this figure still isn’t enough to recoup the costs ofAlan Wake 2underlines howAAA game development has gotten significantly more expensivein recent times. Remedy’s past disclosures suggested that Epic Games Publishing would be taking 100% of the game’s revenue untilAlan Wake 2breaks even, and 50% afterward.
Alan Wake 2 May Break Even Sometime in 2024
While many Epic Games Store exclusives eventually make it to other PC storefronts, the fact that theFortnitemaker directly financed this particular project makes it unclear whether the decision to haveAlan Wake 2skip Steamwill ever be revisited. Remedy’s stock dropped by over seven points following the disclosure ofAlan Wake 2sales, bottoming out at €17 on February 16. Only one month ago, the Finnish developer’s shares were trading at over €25, roughly half of their pandemic-propped peak in 2021.
Alan Wake 2
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A string of ritualistic murders threatens Bright Falls, a small-town community surrounded by Pacific Northwest wilderness. Saga Anderson, an accomplished FBI agent with a reputation for solving impossible cases arrives to investigate the murders. Anderson’s case spirals into a nightmare when she discovers pages of a horror story that starts to come true around her.Alan Wake, a lost writer trapped in a nightmare beyond our world, writes a dark story in an attempt to shape the reality around him and escape his prison. With a dark horror hunting him, Wake is trying to retain his sanity and beat the devil at his own game.Anderson and Wake are two heroes on two desperate journeys in two separate realities, connected at heart in ways neither of them can understand: reflecting each other, echoing each other, and affecting the worlds around them.Fueled by the horror story, supernatural darkness invades Bright Falls, corrupting the locals and threatening the loved ones of both Anderson and Wake. Light is their weapon—and their safe haven — against the darkness they face. Trapped in a sinister horror story where there are only victims and monsters, can they break out to be the heroes they need to be?
