Finnish video game game developer Remedy Entertainment has been an important partner for Microsoft and the Xbox team over the last few years. Microsofts Studios have been the publisher of both Alan Wake and Quantum Break, two story-driven games which have been exclusive to the Xbox and Windows platforms. While Quantum Break has been enjoying critical and commercial success since its launch on the Xbox One and Windows 10 in April, two Remedy executives have shared some news on their upcoming projects in an interview with Polygon today.
First, Remedy head of communication Thomas Puha revealed that the company is not done with Quantum Break. “We’re still working on an update for Windows 10, trying to make sure everyone is fine with Quantum Break”, the exec said, which is good new as the AAA game has been one of the first UWP games to be released on the Windows Store this year.
The now 130-person team has also been making some changes to be able to develop games faster. Johannes Paloheimo, Remedy’s business director explained:
We finally have two teams, which has been a long-time goal for Remedy and we definitely want to make more games,. We don’t want to take five years to ship a game. It’s been a long process, trying to transition into a two team studio, but now we can make more games faster and diversify both financially and creatively.
The game studio is currently developing two new AAA games, and one of them is a completely new IP in development with a new partner which is not Microsoft Studios. Remedy declined to share more details, with Paloheimo adding that “we have to respect our partner and it’s up to them to decide when they want to talk about the game.”
The second game in the pipeline is still in the concept stage and has yet to find a publisher, and Paloheimo also didn’t reveal if it would a new IP. Either way, Polygon reports that neither game will be unveiled at E3 or Gamescom later this year. At least, we’re sure that it won’t be a new Alan Wake game: “We’re not currently working on an Alan Wake game,” Puha said, before adding that “we are actively exploring other mediums where we could tell Alan Wake stories,” which could mean anything.
The Remedy execs also explained that these two upcoming games will continue to showcase what Remedy games are famous for, though the Finnish game studio is also trying to have a forward thinking approach to the medium. Puha shared:
We’re not abandoning story and the narrative. We want to focus on what we are great and known for. We need to become better at incorporating new things, seeing where the market is going, seeing what players want to play more and then bringing that into the narrative experiences we are known for.
Paloheimo added further:
Even though the two new games are clearly Remedy games, with a strong Remedy DNA, to some they might come as a positive surprise, a little bit more than what we’ve done in the past. We’re also trying to break out of genres and reach out to new audiences, especially with one of our new games.
We can’t wait to learn more about these two new games from Remedy, and we’re also excited to see that the Alan Wake franchise may live on other kinds of mediums. We invite you to read the full story over here.
