Remedy Steps in to Defend What Was a “Very Fair” Deal

Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 had a great reception when it launched in late October 2023. It received excellent review scores (including a 9 from Wccftech’s Francesco De Meo), many awards (three at TGA 2023: Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, and Best Art Direction), and even became the fastest-selling game released by the Finnish studio to date, with over 1.3 million units sold as of February 2024. However, sales slowed down quickly afterward. As of late November 2024, Remedy had to admit to its investors that the development and marketing costs hadn’t yet been fully recovered. That only changed in February 2025, when the game finally broke the 2 million-unit mark and began generating royalties for the studio.

Obviously, this relative underperformance for a title that most genre fans agree is very well-made was discussed thoroughly by fans and industry professionals alike. Two of the main factors identified were the lack of a physical release at launch (which only changed a year later) and, most importantly, the fact that the PC version was and is still only available on the Epic Games Store rather than Valve’s Steam, by far the largest game distribution store on the platform. The permanent exclusivity of Alan Wake 2 didn’t sit well with some gamers, who to this day refuse to install the Epic Games Launcher to buy and play the game.

The discussion on the subject was suddenly reignited this week by Larian’s outspoken Director of Publishing, Michael Douse. It all started with the comments of New Blood Interactive CEO Dave Oshry, who noted on social media that giving away a game for free on the Epic Games Store also boosted sales of the same game on Steam.

Addressing that claim, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney responded that ‘gamers and developers win by having more options and better deals’, adding with a jab to Gabe Newell and his famous acquisition of a massive yacht that the Epic Games Store is now ’55-60%’ of Steam’s userbase and that, unlike Valve, the company is reinvesting some of its revenue into the Free Program to the benefit of both developers and users.

That’s when Douse went ahead to say that Remedy ‘seemingly went into financial crisis‘ because of the game’s Epic Games Store exclusivity on PC, losing ‘potentially hundreds of millions‘ by not launching on Steam.

I understand Epic entirely funded Alan Wake 2 but this altruistic pro-developer talk doesn’t sit well when Remedy seemingly went into financial crisis because they couldn’t tap Steam for AW2 sales suffering potentially hundreds of millions in lost revenue.

Not that they need the money, but a % take to Epic could’ve recouped dev costs + more. Competition is good, and important, but it is difficult to buy the message when there are demonstrable cases of games underperforming as a result of the tactic. Ultimately, the viability of the store sits on their ability to convert hundreds of millions of Fortnite players into mid-hardcore premium gamers, and I don’t see the Fortnite brand attempting to do that. The Apple & Google stores spent a decade devaluing games & apps to a point where it is largely impossible to sell a premium game there in a way that doesn’t massively devalue it on other systems. Giving everyone everything for free might bump numbers but doesn’t create a viable storefront from which to sell premium experiences.

In a surprising twist, Alan Wake 2 developer Remedy actually chose to answer Douse directly, outlining that there would be no game at all without Epic’s help and stressing that they received a ‘very fair’ publishing deal.

Hi. There would be no Alan Wake 2 without Epic Publishing. The publishing deal with Epic was very fair to Remedy. While these complex deals can often take even a year to reach their conclusion, and may not always be fair to the developer, this one was. And it only took months to get done. Epic Games was, and is, an excellent partner to us. Steam or no Steam.

To be honest, while Alan Wake 2 would have sold more if it had launched on Steam, it is unlikely that it would have really garnered a large amount of extra sales. The first installment sold a similar amount, after all, and it didn’t have that issue. Moreover, it isn’t like it’s the only Remedy game to suffer this fate. The studio is known for its portfolio of great games that never quite sold as well as they should have, with the exception of Control, which is, however, in a much more popular genre. If there’s anything the studio regrets right now, it is more likely to be the disastrous FBC: Firebreak.

It was already excellent news for gamers (and for Epic itself) that a sequel was made at all, which was far from guaranteed, and even more so that it turned out to be a fantastic survival horror game, thus keeping the Remedy Connected Universe going. On that note, a new entry will be released this year: CONTROL Resonant, a full-fledged action RPG made on a lower budget than Alan Wake 2, making it more likely to turn profitable in a short time.

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