Remedy discusses Alan Wake 2

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 14 February, 2012

Next Xbox, shorter dev cycles and why it won't launch on PlayStation.

Remedy Entertainment has discussed the heavily-rumoured Alan Wake 2, suggesting, if it happens, it won't take as long as the first game to create and won't launch on a PlayStation console.

Is there a team at Remedy working on Alan Wake 2, or at the very least thinking about it?

"Thinking about it?" head of franchise development Oskari Hakkinen told Eurogamer when we asked him that very question.

"When we made Max Payne, we never knew it was going to be a success. We were just young people in a basement creating a video game that became massive. We were shocked by people tapping us on the back at E3 and saying, 'You've done something amazing. Do you realise what you've done?' Everyone's like, 'No. What have we done?' It's like, 'You've created this amazing game.'

"On Max Payne 1 Sam [Lake, creative director] killed off all the characters. So it was a problem starting Max Payne 2 because we never knew we were going to make a sequel. We never thought about it. Sam never wrote the story like that. He wrote one game. The only reason why Mona Sax survived when the lift door closed is because one of the partners we were working with on the graphic novel, she was like, 'Don't kill Mona!' So we changed it so you didn't explicitly see she died. Fortunately, that's why Mona played such a big role in Max Payne 2.

"For Alan Wake, we planned a little bit more ahead. So with the story Sam had already created the fiction from the get-go to be something larger than just one game. He created it with a whole franchise and a whole universe in mind. Even Night Springs was something he had already thought about - a fiction within a fiction. So it came quite naturally for him to know the fit for [Xbox Live Arcade game Alan Wake's American Nightmare].

"It's a lot more thought out than Max Payne ever was, but at the same time we've got nothing to announce."

While Alan Wake 2 remains unannounced, an Xbox World report from last year suggested the game was being made for the next Xbox, which is rumoured to be set for an E3 2012 announcement.

While Hakkinen refused to confirm or deny this report when we put it to him, he did say that if Remedy makes Alan Wake 2 it won't take as long to create as Alan Wake.

"Development wise, five years is developing an engine, the tech, the tools, all of the things you need to do to do a story, a character, other NPC characters and so forth," he explained.

"Once those things are done it's a lot easier. We're seeing it already with American Nightmare, which was only eight months of development, and we completely changed the setting. It's in Arizona now. It's not in the Pacific Northwest.

"So without recycling much of anything we did it in eight months, because a lot of the things were already locked down. It's a lot easier when you've got a team that knows what they're doing and it's about a franchise they know.

"The answer is, if we were to do a sequel to Alan Wake, it certainly is a much quicker and easier development cycle than the original Alan Wake, because the engine is created for the game. The overall fiction and the universe is already created.

"Concerning next-gen, I really can't speak to it because it's just a fuzzy thought in everybody's head right now. We don't know [what's coming]. They're keeping it very tight. Maybe it's just not the right time to talk about it."

Alan Wake launched as an Xbox 360 exclusive in 2010. It launches on PC this week nearly two years later. Alan Wake's American Nightmare is an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive game.

So far, Alan Wake has yet to grace a PlayStation platform, and it sounds like it will continue to skip Sony consoles in the future - despite Remedy owning the Alan Wake IP.

"I know you're never going to see Alan Wake or Alan Wake's American Nightmare on PlayStation," Hakkinen said. "Those are Xbox exclusives.

"The franchise is really close to our hearts. It's something we developed for a long time. You'll be seeing more of Alan Wake in the future."

But will Alan Wake 2 be multi-platform?

"With all honesty, there are absolutely no plans for that at the moment," Hakkinen replied. "I'm not going to say never, but at the same time I'll say there are no plans. There are no conversations and no plans going on for multi-platform."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 3 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • feistycheese #1 3 months ago

    I hate the word 'Franchise'.

  • billy-beauts #2 3 months ago

    It's pretty sad that they don't have the balls to put it on PS3. I guess they realise it can't compete with Sony's exclusives.

  • fiery_jackass #3 3 months ago

    I'm not keen on "lol", "definate" or "rediculous"

  • miiiguel #4 3 months ago

    It's pretty sad that they don't have the balls to put it on PS3. I guess they realise it can't compete with Sony's exclusives.

    So you shouldn't be sad, since it can't compete. Everybody's happy...

  • Jay-ITFC #5 3 months ago

    @billy-beauts Or perhaps they just want to remain a Microsoft exclusive?

  • trebellk #6 3 months ago

    @Billy ...or they're acting as a second party, as do Insomniac for Sony and are quite happy with the exclusive arrangement?
    Edited by trebellk at 14/02/12 @ 17:28

  • JayG #7 3 months ago

    I'm a wee bit confused, if Alan Wake is a microsoft exclusive how is it been released on PC published by Nordic Games.

  • billy-beauts #8 3 months ago

    @trebellk The key difference being, that Sony own the rights to Resistance and Ratchet.

  • Breadbitten #9 3 months ago

    @feistycheese Don't ever study Business then.

  • ubergine #10 3 months ago

    Maybe it's more the case that it didn't sell well enough to bother recoding it for Sony's bizarre system.

    Unfortunately, while I've never seen sales figures for Alan Wake, well, that actually bodes ill, given that whenever sales are good, they get boasted from the high walls. I'd like Alan Wake to have the follow-up its begging for but in a ways the game does stand alone.

    I still think the sequel should be called Alice Wake and follow her attempts to find her husband.

  • wattsn26 #11 3 months ago

    If they like money they'd put it on PS3, I believe it will do very well on Steam and would do well on PS3. But they are correct, Microsoft most likely demanded that Alan Wake remain a console exclusive. Sony does the same thing with many PS3/PC downloadable titles...I would gladly buy it again since I 100 percented Alan Wake on 360.

  • wattsn26 #12 3 months ago

    @JayG Microsoft does not own the rights to Alan Wake, Remedy does, but similar to the situation with Mass Effect 1 (appearing on PC but not PS3), Microsoft published the console version of Alan Wake and in their exclusivity agreement requested that it not appear on any other system.

    Oddly enough Microsoft also does not own the rights to Gears of War either...

  • Paul_cz #13 3 months ago

    As long as MS pays for development, I would guess the game will stay on xbox and later PC.

    So here is hoping Remedy could make games without MS paying for it!

  • DoctorFraud #14 3 months ago

    Very glad its not on PS3. All that extra dev time to make a worse version would be a waste.

  • telboy007 #15 3 months ago

    "It's a lot more thought out than Max Payne ever was, but at the same time we've got nothing to announce."

    ... troll?

  • Daeltaja #16 3 months ago

    Max Payne 1 spoilers alert.

  • theonlyix #17 3 months ago

    I want Alan 2 on my xbox 720 next year, while all sony fgirls still play their graphically outdated multiplatform titles :-)

  • andrewsqual #18 3 months ago

    Shame its not on PS3. Only months before Alan Wake came out Heavy Rain, another new IP, sold a million in a week. It took Alan Wake almost a year to accomplish the same thing. Embarrassingly Sniper Confrontation released a month later on 360 and sold a million in about 2 months. Its great to see where Xbox 360 owner's priorities lie.

  • makeamazing #19 3 months ago

    Alan Wake 1 was originally going to come out on both Xbox and PC, obviously due to long development they had to drop PC to get it out on Xbox (probably patience was wearing thin from MS).

    Sales of AW1 were not that great initially... for a while MS were talking like they were not interested in anymore AW at all.

    So i think with Xbox marketplace version, i suspect this is part of Remedies attempt at getting MS to sign up for a AW2... so personally if i was trying to do that, i would also say that it wasn't going multi platform and wasn't something we were looking at. So they are probably hoping American Nightmare will sell well and then lead to AW2 probably on the next xbox.

    Anyway, thats how i read it.
    Edited by makeamazing at 15/02/12 @ 19:38

  • JayG #20 3 months ago

    Wow, Max Payne 2 was 8 years ago. Damn. One of my all time favorite games though.

  • DurzoBlint #21 3 months ago

    There are no conversations and no plans, only sacks of money and a staggeringly dull IP.

  • MaybeLater #22 3 months ago

    Post deleted at 21:36:30 14-02-2012

  • Picnic #23 3 months ago

    @spacedelete Possibly because they never planned on making a sequel so didn't nercessarily plan on making a third game either. Also, the sequel didn't apparently sell as well as might have been expected but it was a very competitivve period in my opinion around 2003/2004- there were a MASSIVE number of sequels released. And also perhaps only the Fun House massively stands out as being very different from the first game. And there was an amaeteur 'get people in from the office' aspect to the first game that was endearing and that perhaps even had the effect of making the game feel more real compared to the second game when they got professional actors.

  • NeverEatYellowSnow #24 3 months ago

    @billy-beauts

    Or maybe cos it's a shit game that Sony don't want it ;)

  • scuffpuppies #25 3 months ago

    Each platform needs its exclusives. That's what makes owning all formats worth while. If every big game was cross/multiplatform, what's the point of competing console manufacturers.

    For example, Microsoft should have fought a lot harder to keep Mass Effect. Say what you want about Sony, but they know how to nurture their exclusives and woo their 3rd and 2nd party developers.

  • CaptainKid #26 3 months ago

    "Concerning next-gen, I really can't speak to it because it's just a fuzzy thought in everybody's head right now. We don't know [what's coming]. They're keeping it very tight. Maybe it's just not the right time to talk about it."

    I will never understand this.
    The next generation will be released max two years from now.
    Making a game takes three years.
    How is it possible Microsoft and Sony haven't already shipped out devkits to developers to start making games??

  • RGeefe #27 3 months ago

    the first one was a massive let down. greatly atmospheric but the graphics were outdated, controls a bit iffy and action repetitive. American Nightmare is gonna have to sell like crazy to make up for it and, so far, I've got zero interest in it.

    somebody should just teach David Lynch how to make games instead.

  • Nephirion #28 3 months ago

    Alan Wake was an average game had potential but I guess the developers got blinded by greed.

  • Badassbab #29 3 months ago

    Bringing AW to PS3 would be a massive waste of time. It wouldnt sell that well anyway and in order to get it running well a small team like Remedy would have to spend ages recoding it. Totally not worth it.

  • Oskool #30 3 months ago

    I hope we don't have to shine a flash light on ghosts in order to break their force fields, before finally being able to kill them. Less depth-of-view blur filters would be nice too. I hate when far away objects look blurry.
    Edited by Oskool at 15/02/12 @ 03:54

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #31 3 months ago

    (it wont launch on a playstation), because it simply aint good enough for playstation and wasn't even good enough for xbox in the first place! neggers do your worst lol...

  • darm #32 3 months ago

    Alan Wake was a letdown, not that it was particulary bad or something, but it was really overhyped during its long development cycle. And when the gameplay between story segments often turned out to be tedious 'arrgh, more of those damn monsters, when will it end' and the ending wasn't really conclusive - I was very diappointed.

  • Monkeyspoon #33 3 months ago

    Playstation owners aren't missing much with Alan wake. There are plenty of better exclusives on ps3. AW was one of my biggest dissapointments on 360. 5 years in development and that's the best they could do.

  • CloudXIV #34 3 months ago

    I loved both Max Payne games, but Alan Wake was pretty lackluster. It had really good graphics, but it was too repepetitive and the characters waren't as good as I hoped for. I played that game right after Deadly Premonition and for the whole time I just wanted to get back to Agent York and the rest of the goofy and crazy cast. Alan Wake was no match for that game in terms of characters and story. I just expected more from guys that made the brilliant Max Payne.

  • NiolK #35 3 months ago

    Alan Wake was my personal 2010 Game of the year. Absolutely loved it. It had an originality and atmosphere I rarely find in other games

    It's almost two years since I played it and I can still remember the game with crystal clarity. Sadly, very few of the games I've played since have had the same impact. It's a struggle to remember some I've played in the last few months even!

    I want Alan Wake 2 even more than I want Psychonauts 2!!
    Edited by NiolK at 15/02/12 @ 12:08

  • LittleRiver #36 3 months ago

    I had assumed that underwhelming sales of the original had forced the sequel "American Nightmare" on to XBLA. Turns out I was wrong then!

  • sh4dow83 #37 3 months ago

    "Those are Xbox exclusives."

    Right... and why is Alan Wake being released for PC again, if it's Xbox exclusive? Guess PC doesn't count as a platform?

  • sh4dow83 #38 3 months ago

    @RGeefe make up for what? Alan Wake sold over a million times. That's alright for a new franchise. I bet they already have the budget for their next game covered and are only milking it with the XBLA game.

  • Acekidder #39 3 months ago

    @miiiguel stupidest comment ever alan wake is a far better tense adult game then anything on ps3 you can keep your uncharted n ratchet and clank i will be very happy with alan wake and gears of war thanks.

  • Acekidder #40 3 months ago

    Post deleted at 15:16:39 22-02-2012

  • Acekidder #41 3 months ago

    Alan wake is an amazing game great adult story and gameplay not one for the kiddies, just bought American nightmare and its truly exceptional more combat orientated but still dripping with atmosphere any self respecting adult gamer should pick both titles up if they haven't already done so, trust me you wont be disappointed roll on Alan Wake 2.