Remedy has provided a rare insight into the business of making video games, even going as far as to reveal exactly how many copies its future games need to sell in order to break even.
The video game industry is typically secretive when it comes to its commercial realities, and rarely does it provide development or marketing budgets or sales projections. But Remedy, developer of Alan Wake 2, has done just that in an investment-focused meeting, discussing the upcoming Control 2 PvE shooter FBC Firebreak.
It’s worth prefacing this by saying Remedy is talking about the sales needed to make a 100% return on investment (ROI) on these games, and that’s expected over a period of three to five years after. The game budgets, Remedy said, were set with their price points and expected sales in mind, and are “realistic.”
Let’s start with FBC Firebreak, Remedy's new multiplayer game set in the Control universe billed as a three-player co-op experience (it’s worth bearing in mind FBC Firebreak will be available day one on Xbox Game Pass and PS Plus Extra, which will secure additional revenue from Microsoft and Sony).
The development budget for Firebreak is 30 million euros (approx $31.7 million), and will carry a mid-price point. To secure 100% ROI, it needs to sell three million copies during its lifetime.
Moving on to Control 2, as a full-price triple-A game Remedy is set to self-publish (and therefore retain a larger cut of revenue), the development budget is higher: 50 million euros (approx $52.9 million). Control 2 needs to sell between three and four million copies to break even. Control 2, by the way, is an action RPG, Remedy said today.
Is that realistic? According to Remedy, the first Control game has now sold over 4.5 million, so it’ll be hoping Control 2 can reach or even exceed that figure. Encouraging the studio will be the fact that Control has reached an impressive 19 million players with the help of various subscription services, so the audience interested in the sequel should be significant.
You’re only as good as your last game, though, and for Remedy that’s Alan Wake 2. The horror adventure is now up to 1.8 million copies sold, and it still hasn’t turned a profit (although it’s close to doing so).
The triple-A video game market is particularly brutal right now, with thousands of developers losing their jobs and an ever growing list of studios shutting their doors. Throughout it all Remedy has remained independent, although in September it received a 15 million euro (approx $15.8 million) loan from Tencent as part of its self-publishing push.
Meanwhile, Remedy is also working on remakes of the first two Max Payne games for GTA 6 developer Rockstar Games.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
