Remedy teases Alan Wake's American Nightmare for PC

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 21 February, 2012

Plus, why it wasn't made for PSN as well as XBLA.

Will Alan Wake's American Nightmare follow Alan Wake's lead and launch on PC after releasing on Xbox 360?

Developer Remedy has delivered a strong hint that it will.

"PC gaming is part of our heritage," Remedy head of franchise development Oskari Hakkinen told Eurogamer when we asked him that very question. "PC gaming is close to our hearts. We'll make it happen if we can."

Alan Wake's American Nightmare, which launches on XBLA tomorrow, is a standalone, more action-oriented experience than Alan Wake.

It's set in a fictional episode of Night Springs, the Twilight Zone-style TV show that appeared in Alan Wake, and sees the grumpy writer face off against waves of enemies with an arsenal of weapons.

While a PC release sounds like a sure thing, one platform American Nightmare will never release on is the PlayStation 3.

That's because during the game's eight month development, Remedy decided it would be an XBLA-only title. The Finnish developer then approached Microsoft with a "nearly finished" game. And Microsoft said, yes please.

But why not create American Nightmare for PlayStation Network as well as XBLA? Remedy is the Alan Wake IP holder after all.

"We didn't develop for PlayStation because our engine is customised for Xbox, not to say we couldn't ever do PlayStation, but it just would have required a lot more work to then start doing it for PlayStation," Hakkinen said.

"And we had a relationship with Microsoft already. We showed the game to them, and they were like, this is awesome. Let's put it out. Once you've got a relationship going, things are a lot easier. Once you've got the hotline to call the right people and say, this is what we're doing, and there's mutual respect there, they say, you guys do quite good stuff, we like it, so come over and show it."

Remedy's negotiations with Microsoft over American Nightmare were very different to its talks with the Xbox 360 manufacturer over exclusivity for Alan Wake, Hakkinen said, suggesting American Nightmare won't take as long to arrive on PC as Alan Wake did.

"We did a lot of the stuff before approaching MS," Hakkinen explained. "We had the game pretty much in the can.

"We self-funded the whole thing. It's like, this is it. Negotiations were very different."

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 (20) Latest comment 3 months ago

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

  • J0rdan_KZ #1 3 months ago

    Even if Alan Wake on PC was a port... It's a damn fine port. I was initially pretty eager to buy American Nightmare on XBLA, but I think I'll wait now that Remedy and Microsoft know there's a market out there for this game on PC.

  • aphex187 #2 3 months ago

    @J0rdan_KZ My thoughts entirely m8! AW for PC was just bloody gorgeous to look at and with it selling and making it's money back in 48hrs you can betcha it will show up on Steam sometime soon ;)

  • Nico4 #3 3 months ago

    A shame for the PS3 crowd, but at least we have a developer that is somewhat loyal.

  • zisssou #4 3 months ago

    I understand that it would take effort and money to develop for the PS3, but then you're missing out on a lot of interested folk such as myself who doesn't own an Xbox.

  • Shakey_Jake33 #5 3 months ago

    @Nico4 - Loyal to who? Consumers who own a specific brand of electronic hardware?

  • Thermobaric #6 3 months ago

    Coming crawling back to the PC gamers huh?

  • Baihu1983 #7 3 months ago

    @Thermobaric Remedy never wanted to ''leave'' PC gamers. It was MS who canned the PC version 2 years ago not Remedy and it was MS who made the dumb couch comment NOT Remedy.

  • Spong #8 3 months ago

    Post deleted at 13:39:33 21-02-2012

  • N2O1990 #9 3 months ago

    @J0rdan_KZ
    why wait?why don't buy it two times?it just 1200point for XBLA,and i think it will be cheaper on PC

  • Smoped #10 3 months ago

    I can totally understand that starting to learn PS3 development at this point in the console cycle doesn't seem like the best possible use of resources, no matter how much Sony tries to convince us there's not a PS4 on the horizon. How about a Vita version then, guys? I bet that would shift a few copies.

  • juliankennedy23 #11 3 months ago

    Still have to get around to playing the first one... :)

  • wattsn26 #12 3 months ago

    I don't understand their sentiment, if even Insomniac a developer who has worked with Sony for nearly two decades can shift focus to multiplatform development why not a 2nd party who has only worked with Microsoft for about 5 or 6 years. First they say its because Microsoft was the only publisher they sought the minute they finished the project, second they say it would be too hard to code...cutting Microsoft out of the equation would have opened up much more possibilities for Alan Wake having multimillion success in sales, and making a sequel an even greater possibility.

    They genuinely sound like they've realized that a simultaneous PC/360 release would have been an even better opportunity but they sound as though they're still comfortable with Microsoft as their go-to publisher and that will not bode well for future Alan Wake titles appearing on Wii U or PS4/PS3...

  • TrevHead #13 3 months ago

    I just finished the 360 original this morning, great story with a proper ending that ties up the story but still leaves the possibilty of a sequel.

    Although I would love to play AW2 I dont feel that one needs to be made. Im kind of getting sick of the number of games that are episodic, with many others leaving the door wide open for a sequel. With AW its just a crack in the door, and its all the better for it

  • Jasugun #14 3 months ago

    @wattsn26 Remedy uses its own engine. Such a huge piece of software makes early development decisions crucial. Due to their deal with MS back in 2005, they have ruled out ps3 from the start. Now it costs very much time and efforts to tailor an engine to cook ps3 builds when it's not originally been designed to do so. Remedy is self funding now, which means they must have thought about the ps3 back again, but must have then realised that the expenses would largely exceed potential benefits from a ps3 build.

  • Baihu1983 #15 3 months ago

    Remedy is also a very small dev team thats only made 5 games. In a way they are still on the learning path.

  • TagemandBagem #16 3 months ago

    The Steam pricing was a very smart move.

    If it had been €40/50 I wouldn't have given it a second look.

  • wattsn26 #17 3 months ago

    @Jasugun Clearly they want the game to be multiplatform, what I'm saying is future proof the engine and port "American Nightmare" and then when "Alan Wake 2" comes out they won't need Microsoft as a publisher since the game's sales on Steam, 360 and XBL will surely bring in a third party.

    If Remedy cannot develop for a Playstation platform ever how will they be able to bolster a team that will be able to create an even more detailed engine for PC and next gen platforms

  • Thermobaric #18 3 months ago

    @Baihu1983 I know. It's just a shame Remedy didn't have the power to tell MS where to go. But at the end of the day MS are still in charge of Remedy now right? And they're allowing them to release on the PC.

  • Baihu1983 #19 3 months ago

    @Thermobaric No MS are not in charge. Remedy own the IP but MS bought the publisher rights to the first game.
    Remedy and MS have a good relation so Remedy asked MS[several times] to allow them to release it on PC which MS agreed to because they understood how important PC gamers are to Remedy.
    It sucked but you cant blame MS for trying to make the 360 version a big hit by making it the only place to play the game until now.


    Remedy have said several times that Alan Wake will stay xbox only as far as consoles go because of their friendship with MS.
    MS has no say on what direction the series takes and i dare say American Nightmare will come out on PC in around 6 months time.

  • RGeefe #20 3 months ago

    Rockstar said they had an exclusive relationship with Xbox.


    Just saying...