Could Alan Wake 2 Be Remedy’s Next Project? April 15, 2016

Quantum Break is out now on Xbox One and Windows 10 systems and if you want my opinion you should pick it up as soon as possible.  The game was developed by Remedy, an independent game developer from Finland famous for creating the first two Max Payne games, Death Rally, and the cult classic Alan Wake.  Now that Quantum Break is out Remedy is free to produce whichever game they want, and after playing Quantum Break, I have a sneaking suspicion Remedy might be planning to make the game their fans want them to make most, Alan Wake 2, as their next game.

Now before we go any further I’d like to preface this article with a bit of a disclaimer. I have absolutely no insider knowledge inside Remedy or Microsoft (and that joke video I did a few years ago doesn’t count), I am simply a well-informed gamer who has kept his ear low to the ground whenever Remedy and Microsoft have publicly released information about their future plans.  Secondly, my ego is nowhere big enough to give me the desire to presume what I feel Remedy should do with their company, and if Remedy decides to take their company in a different direction than the one I predict here, I will have no problem with that.

So now, after getting all of that out of the way, let’s get started with some background information, shall we?  Alan Wake was developed by Remedy Games for the Xbox 360 during the later half of the last decade and they still own the rights to the game’s Intellectual Property (IP).  While Microsoft was involved with the games’s production, they merely published the title and did not fund it. Remedy actually self-funded Alan Wake’s development and that gave them a lot of flexibility to make the best title they could.  Alan Wake‘s sales met its expected projections, and while the game has a reputation of being merely a cult classic, it not only sold well, it was received very well by critics and gamers alike.  Other than publisher apathy, there’s nothing stopping Remedy from making another Alan Wake game, and I’d like to break down some of the recent hints Remedy has been dropping that a new Alan Wake game might be Remedy’s very next project.

First, I’d like to remind you that digital copies of Alan Wake were bundled with Quantum Break and Alan Wake’s American Nightmare was Quantum Break‘s preorder gift.  Not only did this add a great value to gamers’ wallets, it speaks volumes about Remedy and Microsoft’s faith in the Alan Wake games.  On top of that, both Alan Wake and Alan Wake’s American Nightmare are now fully playable on the Xbox One using Backwards Compatibility, an honor only a few other Xbox 360 titles have right now. This is an obvious attempt to grow Alan Wake‘s fanbase, since both opportunities offer new players the chance to play both of the original titles, and to remind long-time fans of how great the original games were.  New players might be interested to finally see the games people have been talking about for years, and any pre-existing fans who already had either game could just gift their download codes to other potential players interested in finally playing the games themselves.

I spoke to a long time Remedy superfan recently about this and I wanted to share their thoughts with you. They said, “..if more people are interested [in Alan Wake 2] from playing Quantum Break, [Microsoft] might change their mind [and publish it].

Then there was this next development.  A few months before wrapping up Quantum Break, Remedy released this video through the press organization Polygon:

If you’ve already seen this video or not, I think we need to discuss the context behind its creation and its release. This video was produced in 2010 to pitch Alan Wake 2 to various game publishers.  According to information published in Quantum Break: The Secret History of Time Travel, Remedy planned to develop a sequel to Alan Wake immediatly after the original Alan Wake was released, but Microsoft was more interested in the concept behind Quantum Break, and Remedy decided to make Quantum Break next. It would later become the first game ever announced for the Xbox One console.

This footage turned a lot of heads and made gamers from all around the world write to the major game publishers, especially Microsoft, just to ask why they wouldn’t green light this project.  I have to complement Remedy for releasing this footage to the public when they did, because they put it out at the perfect time. A well managed  development studio would want to have another project in line once their current project ended.  If they wanted their next project to be Alan Wake 2, Remedy could use the pressure from the franchise’s fans (rallied by the release of the original pitch footage) to convince publishers to back the project they want to make.

Finally, I’d like to put on a tinfoil hat and talk about one particular Alan Wake Easter Egg hidden in Quantum Break.  In the new game’s first act, players will come across a television inside a tent. If you turn it on, a live-action movie will begin to play on the screen starring some actors long time Remedy fans might be familiar with.  While a good source for the video doesn’t exist yet, here’s a different video confirming its inclusion in the game.

If you watched my Let’s Play of the first act of Quantum Break you would know we stumbled onto the Easter Egg early on during the first half of our playthrough. I’m sure anyone who watched the video could see how much that video affected me  just based on my reaction while I watched it.  This was not just some simple joke, Remedy went to the trouble to put the actor who played Alan Wake in it.  The narration hinted directly at the events of Alan Wake, and at possible ideas for the future of the franchise.  The video ended with the word RETURN, the title Alan chose for his next manuscript, the same manuscript meant to free him from the prediciment he found himself in at the end of the first game.  This was an incredible video, which could best be described by both myself and another superfan as just “awesome”.  Unfortunately, while Alan Wake’s Return has been recently trademarked by Remedy, Remedy later told the press that the trademark was filed specifically for that video and only that video.   Alan Wake Easter Eggs were not just limited to that specific video, the game had plenty of other connections to Alan Wake’s universe, giving some credence to the theory that the games take place in the same universe.  Quantum Break also broadcasts the television show Night Springs, a signed copy of one of Alan’s books can be found in the game, and the information left on a lecture hall’s chalkboard gave a great boost to the hearts of fans that a new Alan Wake game was coming!  Heck, I think I even caught William wearing an Old Gods of Asgard shirt for a split second.  Why include all of this along so many other nods to Alan Wake in Quantum Break if not to lay the groundwork for an eventual return?

That’s just my thoughts but I want to hear what you think. Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section below. Of course, this is all speculation and while I am greatly looking forward to seeing an Alan Wake sequel, Remedy is free to make whatever game they want.  If you’d like to see Alan Wake 2, my advice would be to write to anyone at Microsoft or any other major game publisher and tell them you’re a fan of the franchise and you’d like to see them work with Remedy to release another one.  Now please excuse me so I can take this tin foil hat off.