There are places in our world where fiction and dreams can come true.

A Conversation with Tiia Öhman

We recently spoke Tiia Öhman about working as a photographer on the Alan Wake 2 set. Her stunning work can be seen in-game, in marketing, and on merchandise.

Community Spotlight: Edvard Spells

For our first Community Spotlight of 2024, we spoke to the brilliant Edvard Spells, a cosplayer who smoothly transforms from tormented writer to evil double.

Alan Wake 2 Update Lowers Requirements

In March, Remedy released their Alan Wake 2 update (1.0.16.1) for PCs, which lowers the minimum GPU requirements, optimising rendering for GPUs that don't support mesh shaders.

Alan Wake 2 Nominated For Eight BAFTAs

Remedy enters the ceremony strong with eight nominations for Alan Wake 2, including Animation, Artistic Achievement, Audio Achievement, Music, Narrative, and Best Game.

Remedy Purchases Full Rights for Control IP at €17 million

With the purchase, the publishing agreements for Control, Condor (codename), and Control 2 have been terminated by mutual agreement.

An Open Letter from Sam Lake / Alan Wake Remastered

Alan Wake 2 sold one million units by the end of December 2023 and 1.3 million units as of February 2024, making it Remedy’s fastest-selling game so far.

An Open Letter from Sam Lake / Alan Wake Remastered

Alan Wake Remastered is coming! Read Sam Lake's open letter announcing the new game, his passion for Wake's debut adventure, and release details.

Our Conversation with Matthew Porretta, the Voice of Alan Wake

To celebrate the game's 10th anniversary, we sat down with Matthew Porretta, the incredible voice actor behind Alan Wake, to talk about his experiences and memories.


27th March 2024
Remedy Entertainment Annual Report 2023

Last Wednesday, Remedy published five reports which reflected on the state of the company throughout 2023. In our previous blog post, we wrote about four of them; Financial Statements Release January-December 2024, Financial Statement and Board of Directors' Report 2023, Remuneration Report 2024, and Corporate Governance Statement 2023. Today, we're going to be looking at that fifth report, which features interviews with Tero Virtala (Remedy's CEO) and Ilkka Villi (Physical Actor for Alan Wake)

So, what is it? Every year, Remedy releases its Annual Report, a document that looks at the company as a whole, including its strategy, environment, games, people, sustainability, governance, and financials.

These reports tend to be more reader-friendly than their other publications, with a lot of effort being put into making the information presentable and easy to read. Financial reports are great sources of discovering what's going on with the company, but admittedly, if you don't like blocks of text, you're going to struggle. As a result, the Annual Reports tend to kindle more excitement in the Remedy community. 

We're going to be looking at some of the key pieces from the report that weren't included in the others, but if you want to read the full document yourself, make sure to check out the Investors page HERE. The report is currently located at the bottom of the page, marked as "Remedy's Annual Report 2023".




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Developers. Remedy Entertainment's headquarters are based in Espoo, Finland, with a newer second office located in Stockholm, Sweden. The number of developers and contractors employed by the studios at the end of 2023 was 352 (up from 334 in 2022), with workers from 33 different countries. The studio is still fairly male-dominated, with 76% Men, 23% Women, and 1% listed as "Other", with the average age currently set at 35.9. In 2023, 53 developers joined the studio, with an employee turnover of 8.1%. Remedy Sweden has 30 developers, most of whom work on-site. By the end of 2024, they aim to have 40 developers at their second base.

Game Projects. Alan Wake 2 was released on October 27th and marked one million units sold by the end of the year. Control 2, "Condor", and the Max Payne 1&2 Remake are moving along, with the reporting stating that the teams are making good progress. "Vangaurd" was restarted, in agreement with publisher Tencent, and adopted the new project codename "Kestral". It has also been confirmed that "Kestral" will be part of the Remedy Connected Universe.

Control and Alan Wake. In their chapter, "Why Invest In Remedy", the studio lists "two established franchises, Control and Alan Wake, which are linked through the Remedy Connected Universe. Growing and expanding these franchises will be a key part of our future."

Partner IP. While Remedy tends to focus on their own IP, they're not opposed to working on other games. In its Business Model, Remedy includes "Partner IP", which mirrors the path taken for Smilegate's CrossfireX and Rockstar's Max Payne 1&2 Remake. In their model, they state that the partner funds the development of the game, with Remedy developing it to agreed specifications. In return, Remedy receives development fees (typically with a margin) at agreed milestones. "Partner IP projects carry a lower financial risk for Remedy, but participation in the game success is also limited."

Stage Gate. Remedy's Stage Gate Process splits a project into six stages: Mandate (featuring the project management only for approximately 1-2 months), Concept (<20 developers for 3-6 months), Proof-Of-Concept (<50 developers for 4-12 months), Production Readiness (<75 developers for 3-6 months), Full Production (75-200 developers for 15-26 months), and finally Live Stage (10-20 developers working on updates with 20-30 developers working on DLCs for 1-2 years, across 1-3 DLC packs).

Development Budgets. Control 2's initial development budget totals EUR 50 million, and is currently in the Proof-Of-Concept stage. Condor's initial budget is set at EUR 25 million, it has reached the Production Readiness stage.

Influencer Collaborations. In its marketing section, the studio addressed how they were "harnessing the powers of influencers" for Alan Wake 2, with examples including an escape room with JackSepticEye and 8-BitRyan, along with the Mystery FBI Boxes, and other exclusive projects. Unexpectedly, while community engagement activities were a key topic in the marketing section of the previous year's report, there's a noticeable absence in the current report, with the focus switching to influencer collaborations and the importance of maintaining those relations. Though it's no surprise, earlier in the report, the studio spotlighted the importance of influencers in marketing under "Trends in Gaming", stating that "their impact is becoming greater than that of the traditional gaming media". 

Finnish Culture. With Alan Wake 2, Remedy celebrated its Finnish heritage in their collaborations, teaming up with Makia for a new clothing collection, Fried Music for chapter songs, Poets of the Fall to bring life to Old Gods of Asgard, and Airam for the Oh Deer Diner Thermos.

Tidbits. Remedy's new motion capture studio features 94 cameras. The Northlight team consists of 60 developers,

Company Culture. Remedy's goal to improve company culture consists of three pillars; Camaraderie, Pioneering Spirit, and Smart Creativity. Alongside these pillars, Remedy sends out regular surveys to learn how they can improve. 

Sustainability. Their Sustainability lists three core goals; 1) People at the heart of everything we do, 2) Memorable experiences for fans across the globe, and 3) Responsible members of society. In 2023, the studio formed a Remedy DEI group to "drive diversity, equity, and inclusion practices across the company". In the same year, they also began measuring their carbon footprint.

26th March 2024
Remedy Entertainment's Financial Report 2023 (Full)
[Financial Statement, Board of Directors' Report, Remuneration Report, Corporate Governance Statement]

Last week, Remedy Entertainment published five reports detailing its internal developments from 2023. 

In this post, we'll examine four documents released on March 20th: Financial Statements Release January-December 2024 (red), Financial Statement and Board of Directors' Report 2023 (green), Remuneration Report 2024 (blue), and Corporate Governance Statement 2023 (purple)

If you're interested in the numbers, I recommend checking out the reports directly to ensure that you're getting the most accurate data. In our roundups, we look primarily at the company's changes, the projects it's working on, and the challenges and achievements it had in the reported time.

As always, the original reports was posted on the Remedy Investors website and emailed to subscribers on March 20th. On the same day, Tero Virtala (CEO), Terhi Kauppi (CFO), and Veli-Pekka Puolakanaho (Head of Corporate Development and IR) took part in a livestream to address the financial results from 2023 and answered questions from shareholders. You can watch the full broadcast, HERE.


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Highlights (Q4 2023)

Alan Wake 2. The team successfully launched Alan Wake 2, which they describe will lay the foundation for the future. The game marks the first under 1) the Remedy Connected Universe and 2) Remedy as a multi-project game studio. Since October, the game has already recouped a "significant part" of the investments made by Epic Games Publishing

Management Changes. Markus Mäki became the Chief Product Officer, with Mika Vehkala appointed Chief Technology Officer. 

Vanguard/Kestral. "Vanguard" was revised and brought back to the concept stage as "Kestral", in agreement with publisher Tencent. As a result, Remedy "recognized an impairment charge of EUR 7.2 million" for Q4 and 2023, which was part of the payment received by Remedy on the development of the title. Writing on the market's needs, Virtala stated "The requirements for a successful new free-to-play game have clearly increased during the past years. Despite the promising progress during the first half of the year, we decided with Tencent that the potential was not there."



Highlights (2023)

Alan Wake 2. The team successfully launched Alan Wake 2 in collaboration with Epic Games in October 2023. (Earlier this year, the developers revealed one million units were sold by the end of 2023, and 1.3 million units by February 2024. This was mentioned in the report despite taking place after the reporting period. Remedy's CEO later states that the game's success was "despite a competitive launch window").

Revenue and Profitability. Increased investments in Remedy's game projects naturally impacted revenue and profitability. Out of the five currently underway, four are being co-financed (presumably "Kestral," Control 2, "Condor," and ongoing work with Alan Wake 2, although the names aren't given). The fifth project is the Max Payne 1&2 Remake



Production Cheat Sheet:

Condor.
Condor is a cooperative, player-verses-environment spin-off game set in the world of Control. Remedy had been partnered with 505Games for this adventure throughout 2023. In February, it was announced that Remedy had purchased the full Control rights from the publisher.

Kestral. Originally codenamed Vanguard, the project received significant changes between the report originally being posted and now with it returning to the concept stage. While still published by Tencent, Remedy described the new project in the press release as being "a premium title, with a cooperative multiplayer element"



Internal Developments

Max Payne 1&2 Remake. In Q3 2023, the project progressed into the production readiness stage, having "gained clarity on the style and scope of the game". The studio stated that the team behind the Max Payne 1&2 Remake made "considerable progress throughout the year" and that it has the indications to be "a major new game with great potential, enabled by a similar development budget as Alan Wake 2."

Alan Wake 2. The development of the game required more personnel than predicted throughout 2023, which delayed other projects moving to the next stage of their development. With Alan Wake 2 now available to players, developers have since been relocated to other projects while still keeping a core team for the game's upcoming DLC. Upon launch, Alan Wake 2 received an 89 Metacritic Score and won multiple awards at The Game Awards.

Condor. In Q3 2023, Condor (Codename) progressed from the proof-of-concept stage to production readiness. Virtala described in his Q3 2023 report that the team has "acquired valuable insights" in creating service-based games and is now more knowledgeable about creating a game that "players can engage with for years." Currently, the team is focused on establishing strong combat and game mechanics.

Control 2. Previously referred to internally as "Heron". The game continues to be in the proof-of-concept stage, although good progress has been made in the designs and game build. The project is expected to remain at this stage for several months, focusing on identifying key elements before proceeding to the next stage of development. In Q4 2024, the team worked on world-building and combat.

Kestral. In mid-November 2023, Remedy revealed a reboot for the project. In agreement with Tencent, the game would be a premium title with a cooperative multiplayer element and return to the concept stage. With the revisions, the project received the new codename, Kestral. In their Board of Directors' Report, the group revealed that "the project was not fully aligned with our core capabilities and our other game projects", which led to the change; this was despite "promising progress" made in the first half of 2023.



State of the Studio

Development Fees. Development fees totalled EUR 28.7 million for 2023, with Remedy investing in long-term projects and success. The average salary of a Remedy employee is EUR 63,852. Board members are paid EUR 3,000 per month, with The Chairman of the Board of Directors (Markus Mäki) paid EUR 4,500.

Royalties. Remedy continued to receive royalties from Alan Wake Remastered. In the third quarter of 2023, the project had officially recouped its developmental and marketing costs. 

Alan Wake 2 Dev Team. While work continued on Alan Wake 2 in the form of updates and expansion packs, most developers were relocated to other projects as those games moved into the next stages of development. The Developmental fees in Q3 were lower due to the base game's development drawing to an end.

Development Investments. Virtala stated that "Alan Wake 2 has already recouped a significant part of the investments made by Epic Games Publishing, and we expect the game to be a meaningful revenue and profitability driver for the year."

Control IP. Outside of the reporting period, in February 2024, Remedy acquired full rights to the Control franchise from 505Games. In his letter, Virtala states, "This is a significant positive step for us. While 505 Games was the right partner in 2017, the franchise and our ambitions have grown since. We see that the way to grow the Control franchise is with a different business model and a partner. "

Alan Wake & Control. In his letter in the 2023 Financial Report, Tero Virtala (CEO at Remedy) stated, "With Alan Wake and Control we now have two established franchises, and our ambition is to grow them into franchises that have high brand recognition, steadily growing user base, more regular cadence of sequels and an ability to generate revenues and profits at a high level." (This has kindled a lot of attention from the media, with several places reporting that Alan Wake 3 has been confirmed. At present, the studio has not explicitly confirmed it, only that they hope to grow the franchise.) 

Financial Statements. The following dates have been confirmed for future financial disclosures: April 29th (Q1 2024 Business Review), August 9th (H1 2024 Financial Report), and November 1 (Q3 2024 Business Review)

Operating Expenses. While we don't tend to report on numbers, there are some interesting notes from the operating expenses. Marketing costs were almost a third of the total cost of travel expenses for 2023 (EUR 254,000 compared to EUR 832,000). Office space costs rose from EUR 291,000 to EUR 665,000, which may have been the result of the Stockholm team moving into their newly furnished studio. 



What Makes Remedy, Remedy

Nationalities. At the end of 2023, Remedy consisted of 352 developers and contractors (up from 334). Of these, 52% were international developers with 32 different nationalities, and the remaining percentage were Finnish developers. 

Core Management Team. The Remedy Core Management Team consists of Tero Virtala (CEO), Terhi Kauppi (CFO), Markus Mäki (Chief Product Officer), Sami Järvi (Creative Director), Johannes Paloheimo (Chief Commercial Officer), Christopher Schmitz (Chief Operating Officer) and Mika Vehkala (Chief Technology Officer).

The Board. The Board of Directors include Markus Mäki (Chair) who has held the role since 1995, Jussi Laakkonen, Henri Österlund, Kaisa Salakka and Sonja Ängeslevä. They will remain in place until the next Annual General Meeting. All members attended 100% of all meetings in 2023.



Recap / 2021-2025 Studio Goals

While the previous few years have been dedicated to strengthening its position as a multi-project developer, the Board has established the key stepping stones that would define success internally going ahead. These goals include:
  • To create several successful games, with the goal of at least one major hit.

  • To own at least three expanding game brands with "long-term hit potential".

  • Strengthening the studio's position to select the ideal distribution for each project (e.g. self-financing, self-publishing, and working with partners).

  • Strengthening Remedy's status and value within Europe.

  • Maintaining a profitable and growing studio with "well-managed risks".

19th March 2024
Behind the Voice's Abhi Jha Talks To Sam Lake In Special Extended Interview

Two weeks after the original teaser, Abhi Jha (aka GaminMadness) is back at the desk with a whole new interview. In the most recent instalment of the Behind the Voice podcast, Abhi sits down with Remedy's Creative Director, Sam Lake, to talk about all things Remedy. 

During their conversation, they look back on the origins of Max Payne, the process of bringing in Old Gods of Asgard, the importance of music in the games, Sam's experience working with James McCaffrey, his approach on Alan Wake and the Remedy Connected Universe, and exploring fan theories. 

Definitely make sure to get something to eat or drink before you watch this, as it's a long episode spanning over 100 minutes of Sam Lake goodness.

Abhi is certainly no stranger to the Alan Wake community and to the topic on his podcast. Earlier this year, the Behind the Voice podcast spoke to Ilkka Villi (the physical actor for Alan Wake) and David Harewood (the actor for Warlin Door), with an interview with Alice Wake actor, Christina Cole, coming up. (There should be time to get your questions in for Christina if you haven't already!) 

In the meantime, make sure to check out the brand-new Behind the Voice episode below...

19th March 2024
Alan Wake 2's Audio Team Wins Hat-Trick at Game Audio Awards 2024

On March 8th, the ninth annual Game Audio Awards, the biggest awards event for game music and sounds in Europe, took place in Oulu, Finland.

Throughout the evening, four awards were given out alongside honourable mentions to select individuals. For Alan Wake 2's audio team, it was a huge night, with the game performing a hat-trick, taking home three categories in a row; Best Game Music, Firestarter Award for Best Game Music Audience Favourite 2023, and Firestarter Award for Best Game Sound Design Audience Favourite 2023.

The jury included Salla Hakkola, Orvar Säfström, Elvira Björkman, Nicklas Hjertberg, Sam Hughes (former Remedy dev!), Mika Niinimaa, Joonas Turner, and Dave Rowe, with the audience able to pick their Firestarter Award choices over dinner.

Collecting the three awards on behalf of the team was Richard Lapington (Audio Director at Remedy), but we also heard from Koča Kaštavara (Senior Music Designer), Dobrivoje Milijanović  (Music Designer) and Petri Alanko (Composer) during the nomination showcase.

You can check out the full ceremony below! We've also transcribed the nomination showcase speeches and Richard's acceptance speeches which you can follow underneath. 

Sound Design Nominations

Richard Lapington: Hello, my name's Richard and I'm the Audio Director at Remedy Games, and I was also the Audio Director for Alan Wake 2

So, the audio for Alan Wake 2 is tied very closely into the narrative and narrative themes. The way we came up with this sonic vision is that we examined the story and chose elements within there, or the themes within there, that really worked well with it and translated well into the audio. So, a lot of the story is about mirroring and contrasting and we took that idea and implanted it into the sonic vision. So the biggest example of this is, like, Washington State verses the Dark Place. 

So, Washington State is a highly naturalistic environment, it's like hyper real. It's really, where nature is prevalent and you can hear that in the rain and the way we treated the reverbs. On the flip side of that coin is the Dark Place, and the Dark Place is… it's a written reality, it's a dream, it's an imagination. Nothing in there is really real. So we tried to create an environment that's very claustrophobic and very unsure of what you're actually hearing, unlike in Washington state. 

Alan Wake 2 is also a horror game and audio is incredibly important for horror, all those little sounds that you hear that set you a little bit on edge. When we were approaching the audio, one of the mantras we had was that quiet sounds are loud. So we tried to flip this idea of dynamic, and dynamic range, so that all the little things within the environment kind of come out so this perception of loudness and expectation of loudness is twisted. 

Koča Kaštavara: Hello, my name is  Koča Kaštavara from Serbia. I was the Senior Music Designer for Alan Wake 2, who mostly took care of the Washington State side of the game. My job was to edit the range and implement various parts of music that Petri made into the gameplay. My biggest challenge was to really feel every scene and give it a distinct tone, but also to keep everything sounding consistent. I'm glad that the game went so well, and that it was received so well. I had a great time working on it, and it looks like we did a good job. Cheers!

Dobrivoje Milijanović: Hello esteemed college and game music lovers. My name is Dobrivoje, and I worked as a music designer for Remedy's Alan Wake 2. My main task was to support and empathise the nightmarish atmosphere of the Dark Place, in which our hero, Alan, was trapped. 

I was incredibly lucky to work with the wonderful audio team led by Richard Lapington and Anika Neubert. And even after all the challenges and tight deadlines along the way, the creative process was rewarding and quite enjoyable. It's a great honour in being nominated for the Golden Reel, and to see our names shoulder to shoulder with the world's best is a dream come true.  


Game Music Nomination

Petri Alanko: Hello everybody. My name is Petri Alanko, and I'm the composer for Alan Wake 2. It all began in 2004, when they were making the first Alan Wake, and it was clear from the start that there would be a sequel later on. We took… just a little bit of time to achieve that.

During the making of Alan Wake 2, it was clear that we would have two protagonists. Of course, Alan would be trapped in the Dark Place and had been there for a long time. So, it would eventually alter him and his thinking and his behaviour, everything. I did quite a lot of different samples, ranging from just screeching- metal screeching, and bending wood and, y'know, all kinds of different things thanks to Apprehension Engine and Mega Marvin Remedy had acquired. I spent quite a lot of time doing a library of my own and recording that in 192/24 and towards the end, 32 floating. I used those as a basis for instruments and then also as a source for impulse responses and convolution. And that mixture sort of amalgamated and merged into something that truly brought the Dark Place and Alan's hell alive. I think the game needed something that was possible only that way. I felt the game needed something very atonal and dissonance and screeching, screaming, as if the instrument was screaming itself to death. And also used those as a basis for processing proto-sounds, I mean other orchestra instruments. Even played some trombone, some cello, some double bass, and I can't play those, so that's part of the secret, so to speak. 

What drives me as a composer is the fact that Remedy's able to create stories and creating believable worlds, characters and turning it all into a huge emotional hurricane. Which comes in and changes your life, probably for good. I feel like my duty is to decorate the world in an appropriate way, finding the means to decorate the world, and despite it's my face and my name somewhere there, I need to emphasise the fact that this very much was teamwork, despite the fact that it's my name in there, I need to emphasise that this is teamwork. This, indeed, was a prime example of very skilled and honed machinery of individual people who are extremely gifted and gave their devotion to a project they all loved, and that humbles me.

Anyhoo, thanks for bearing with me, and thanks for taking your time, and thanks for having me there.


Acceptance Speeches

Best Game Music 

Richard Lapington: I'm accepting this award, of course, on behalf of Petri [Alanko] and Poets of the Fall, and also Fried Music who did an amazing of putting the game together and putting the music together. But I would also like to say, like Petri said in his video, it's so many people involved in creating this, it's such a complicated mass of… you need such a complicated mass of experience to actually get this where it's going. So, I would also like to thank the audio team as well, the narrative team, and also Sam of course, because he actually wrote a lot of the lyrics for the Fried Music stuff. And, of course, Epic Games and Remedy. What do I say next? I think that's it! Thank you very much


Audio Sound Design (Audience Favourite)

Richard Lapington: I have to do this again now, don't I? This time, I would like to thank the audo team and I can go by name because I know them all very very well. So I know Tazio [Schiesari], Gulli [Gunnarsson], Ville [Sorsa], Pauli [Ondruska], Kit [Challis]… now, I'm going to forget them all. Josh [Bell], Henry [Scott], Thomas [Holmes], and I would also like to thank our partners, Red Pipe and Dynamedion. They really pulled it out for this one. What more can I say? I said it all last time! I can say one thing more, I can say that the world at the moment is not the best place to be, there are lots of things going on, so remember to be nice to each other. 


Best Game Music (Audience Favourite)

Richard Lapington: Happy International Women's Day. I actually realised that I forgot to thank somebody, or some people, I want to thank all of you here for voting for us. I'm really really- it's humbling! I've got such imposter syndrome at the moment. It's incredible. But thank you again! 

-- CONSOLE & PC GAMES --

Formerly "Vanguard"

The Crossfire Series

The Control Series

The Quantum Break Series

The Alan Wake Series

The Max Payne Series

-- MOBILE GAMES --

-- LIVE ACTION SERIES --

Icons by the incredible, Evil-Owl-Loki.

Beyond the shadow you settle for, there is a miracle illuminated.