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Control developer's games for Epic are set in a "shared universe", not being developed by the Control team (Remedy working on 5 different games)

Two of Remedy Entertainment's games will be set in a shared universe, with one being a AAA title and the other being something of a smaller experience.

This news comes by way of an interview Gamesindustry.biz held with Remedy CEO, Tero Virtala, who explained what Remedy's multiple development teams are working on. There are four teams in total working on five different games and one of those four teams is working on two titles funded by Epic Games.

"When we were focused on just creating one single story, I don't think we were utilising enough of all the hard work we did on creating the backgrounds for these worlds," Virtala told Gamesindustry.biz. "With Control, we took the first step in giving players more reasons to spend more time in the world, explore them and that's been successful."

"With the project we're doing with Epic, it's in a world we want players to spend more time in," he continued. "There's more opportunities to explore the world and the brand than in one single game."

Neither of these Epic-funded games have been officially announced, although they are set to release on console and PC.

Remedy's Control team is working on its next game while also working on ports for new services. Another team is working on the single-player campaign for Crossfire X and a third team is working on a live-service, co-op multiplayer title called Vanguard. The fourth and final team at Remedy is the team working on the two Epic-funded games.

Virtala told Gamesindustry.biz that while each of these five games are quite different, they will be designed around Remedy's core strengths, which are "creating immersive gaming worlds, meaningful characters, and different types of stories, all combined with action gameplay." The CEO said those core strengths are "the foundation of building long-lasting game franchises."

For more Remedy, read about how the team had a record financial year in 2020 without releasing a single game and then read about how the studio is working on a game set in the Control and Alan Wake connected universe. Check out why IGN picked Control as the game of the year for 2019 and then read IGN's full thoughts on the game in our Control review after that.


Definitely interested to see more of Alan Wake and the Remedy Connected Universe.
 

ButchCat

Member
Why does the sceptic in me think that this connection will amount to nothing and that it's as good as Callisto Protocol being set in the PUBG universe which will also be no more that a marketing stunt.
 
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BigBooper

Member
5 games? How many devs do they have?
At least 5.😗

I didn't like Control or Quantum Break, but loved Alan Wake and Max Payne. Isn't most of the weird stuff in the Control universe all contained to the Oldest House? So anything in the rest of the world could be literally anything. I hope it's not a similar setting as the Oldest House.
 

jakinov

Member
5 games? How many devs do they have?
Not that many. Some projects are small, while some are just contract jobs to remaster or create DLC for other companies. Two projects are larger scale and they purport their engine helps them create games easier/faster.
 

x@3f*oo_e!

Member
5 games? How many devs do they have?
Sub 300. Afaik CrossfireX campaign is done (already beta or maybe released in Korea), idk anything about vanguard, and it seems one game is little. So maybe 80 devs for each of their 3 main gamesif you split it mathematically even though it don't work like that.

They've also outsouced, I think relatively small scale, environmental assets and testing.

It's probably enough. Just.

..

My big question is Sam Lake scripting all these - is that going to work - will the actual 'creative' part (writing) be spread too thin?

..Also all they really do is run and gun shooters .. so 3 run and gun shooters in different settings .. or something different this time ?

[edit] also

A small 15-person team dedicated to creating multiplayer and live titles known as "Vanguard", was established in 2018 (wikipedia)
How the fuck do you pull off GaaS with 15 person team.? Are Finns wizards.?
 
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kiphalfton

Member
I don't get Remedy. Their games' sales numbers and reception allows seem "meh". I would have figured Quantum Break would have shut them down.
 

kyliethicc

Member
Sam Lake has already written the script for their next game that is a semi-sequel to Control.
He called it the "Remedy cinematic universe" because Control and Alan Wake take place in a shared world. Their next game will as well.

Remedy has 5 games in dev:

Team 1 (who made Control)
- new AAA game written by Sam Lake, in their "RCU", semi-sequel up to Control (publisher unknown)




Team 2
- Vanguard live service multiplayer game (publisher unknown)

Team 3
- Crossfire X singleplayer (published by Smilegate)

Team 4
- unnamed AAA game in a new shared world (published by Epic)
- unnamed smaller game also in a new shared world (published by Epic)
 
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Very cool. Control had a cool atmosphere. Never played Alan Wake but it looked really awesome. Looking forward to what these guys do next.
 

demigod

Member
Oh EGS exclusive? Yikes. Never going to be playing these then. :/
You can play them on consoles.

Remedy might want to change that Vanguard name since there's already a Vanguard game published by SOE. I'm betting Team 1 is doing Alan Wake 2.
 

Bridges

Member
One of these HAS to be Alan Wake 2
I don't get Remedy. Their games' sales numbers and reception allows seem "meh". I would have figured Quantum Break would have shut them down.
Their games are very underrated, but I won't lie it does surprise me that they keep managing to get deals with the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Epic after how poorly all their games tend to perform.

Control was their best game yet though and seems to have performed better than their other output both critically and commercially, so maybe they're on an upswing

Quantum Break was pretty decent as far as linear third person shooters go, and it set the groundwork for Control in a lot of ways. The live-action tie-in stuff was a bust but I wonder how much Microsoft actually shares the blame on that considering their huge TV push at the Xbox One launch.
 

mejin

Member
Like Ninja Theory seems they have too many projects..

Quality, not quantity...come on..
 
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iorek21

Member
You know, the thing I liked the least in Control was its story. This shared universe thing only gives me hope for Alan Wake 2, nothing else.

Remedy is great with gameplay, though.
 

Camreezie

Member
They seem like one of those studios where when they get a hit they really start throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. Five projects at much seems a bit much , I wonder how many of those dev teams were working on Control?
 

jakinov

Member
I don't get Remedy. Their games' sales numbers and reception allows seem "meh". I would have figured Quantum Break would have shut them down.
Same reason why a lot of Japanese companies were able to stay around with low game sales. Cheap development costs.

Quantum Break sold well not great based on what had been reported. Control used the same engine as Qunatum Break and they plan to continue to use that engine to create more games which makes game development very cheap for them. Control for example had a budget of $30 million. Which is less than the average price of making a AAA game today and cheaper than even many AAA PS3/360 games.

Remedy has been profitable for a while and have been growing their profits/revenue for a while.


d7dd0d043f3467bed039acb46e176ae4


Generally speaking, if you don't have the financials, and are judging companies, you need to look at the context not just the raw units sold. For example, a game studio with double the employees working in an area like California where everything cost more for the studio including paying everyone more. There’s a higher cost than say Japan where there’s a lot of game developers reportedly overworked and reportedly paid more or less the same as janitors.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Remedy's biggest dud was Quantum Break, it had a terrible story and really weak gunplay considering their pedigree. Not to mention the awful live action "show" that felt very much tacked on. Very disappointing game, especially considering how much I loved literally all their games leading up to it. Control is fantastic, there's a lot of reading, and if you're too lazy to do it, I could see why one wouldn't like/understand Control, but it's very good if you are willing to dive into it.

I really hope at least one of those projects is Alan Wake 2. It has such a cliffhanger ending that leaves you wanting more and it's time...
 
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