Remedy Entertainment has spoken out to defend its publishing deal for Alan Wake 2, which saw the game launch on PC exclusively via the Epic Games Store. More than two years later, there's still no sign of it coming to rival storefront Steam.
Released in October 2023, Alan Wake 2 took a year to eventually begin generating royalties for Remedy, after ticking over the 2 million sales mark. Now, a debate has been sparked over its sales — which would undoubtedly be higher if it had also arrived on Steam, even if the game only exists because of Epic Games cash — as well as the benefits of storefront exclusives.
Discussion was sparked on social media by a lengthy thread from Michael Douse, director of publishing at Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity studio Larian. "I understand Epic entirely funded Alan Wake 2 but this altruistic pro-developer talk doesn't sit well when Remedy seemingly went into financial crisis because they couldn't tap Steam for AW2 sales suffering potentially hundreds of millions in lost revenue," Douse wrote.
"Not that they need the money but a % take to Epic could've recouped dev costs + more. Competition is good, and important, but it is difficult to buy the message when there are demonstrable cases of games underperforming as a result of the tactic."
Initially, Douse had been replying to a post by Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney, who noted that "Epic and Steam compete for each customer and each sale." Sweeney continued: "On some transactions, Epic wins. On more, Steam wins. But one thing is constant on every transaction: gamers and developers win by having more options and better deals."
Continuing his response, Douse characterized the Epic Games' ambitions for its PC storefront as resting on "their ability to convert hundreds of millions of Fortnite players into mid-hardcore premium gamers," tempted by giveaways of free PC titles. "I don't see the Fortnite brand attempting to do that," Douse continued. "So it's like 🤷♀️ Maybe if there was a shit-hot Untreal Tournament.
"The Apple & Google stores spent a decade devaluing games & apps to a point where it is largely impossible to sell a premium game there in a way that doesn't massively devalue it on other systems. Giving everyone everything for free might bump numbers but doesn't create a viable storefront from which to sell premium experiences."
Douse's thread caught the attention of Remedy itself, who then replied with the following statement:
"Hi. There would be no Alan Wake 2 without Epic Publishing. The publishing deal with Epic was very fair to Remedy. While these complex deals can often take even a year to reach their conclusion, and may not always be fair to the developer, this one was. And it only took months to get done. Epic Games was, and is, an excellent partner to us. Steam or no Steam."
For its next game, Control Resonant, Remedy has entered into a partnership with Annapurna Pictures that will see the company fund 50% of the development of the Control sequel, while Annapurna creates film and TV spin-offs of Control and Alan Wake.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
