Alan Wake 2 Is Remedy’s Fastest-Selling Game, Hasn’t Recouped Development Costs

gamerant.com:

Alan Wake 2 still 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 for Alan Wake 2, which look promising enough to suggest that the game will manage to break even in the near future.

While Alan Wake is 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 included Alan Wake Remastered, released two years later. However, Alan Wake Remastered did not sell as well as Remedy hoped it would.

The second game in the series appears to be doing much better by comparison, with Remedy just announcing that Alan Wake 2 had 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 that Alan Wake 2 over 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.

The studio also revealed that its latest title has sold three times more digital copies than Control over the aforementioned periods. This achievement was helped by the fact that Alan Wake 2 was 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 2 retails 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