Remedy provided a uncommon insight into the business of video game development, even going so far as to reveal exactly how many copies future games need to sell to break even.
The video game industry is typically secretive when it comes to commercial realities and rarely provides development budgets, marketing, or sales forecasts. But Remedy, the creator of Alan Wake 2, did just that meeting devoted to investmentsdiscussing the upcoming PvE shooter Control 2 FBC Firebreak.
It’s worth prefacing this by saying that Remedy is talking about the sales needed to achieve a 100% return on investment (ROI) on these games, and that can be expected three to five years later. Remedy said the games’ budgets were set taking into account their price points and expected sales and were “realistic.”
Let’s start with FBC Firebreak, a modern multiplayer game from Remedy studio, set in the Control universe, announced as a three-player co-op mode (it’s worth remembering that FBC Firebreak will be available from day one on Xbox Game Pass and PS Plus Extra, which will provide additional revenue from Microsoft and Sony).
The development budget for Firebreak is 30 million euros (approximately $31.7 million) and will be in the mid-priced range. To ensure a 100% return on investment, it must sell three million units in its lifetime.
Moving on to Control 2, as the full-price triple-A Remedy is expected to be self-published (and thus retain a larger share of the revenue), the development budget is higher: €50 million (approximately $52.9 million). To break even, Control 2 needs to sell three to four million units. By the way, Control 2 is an action RPG, Remedy said today.
Is it realistic? According to Remedy, the first Control game has now sold over 4.5 million copies, so the company hopes Control 2 will meet or even exceed that number. The incentive for the studio will be the fact that Control has reached an impressive 19 million players through various subscription services, so the audience interested in a sequel should be significant.
However, you’re only as good as your last game, and in Remedy’s case, that’s Alan Wake 2. The horror adventure has currently sold 1.8 million copies and still hasn’t turned a profit (though it’s close to achieving that goal). .
The triple-A video game market is particularly brutal right now, as thousands of developers lose their jobs and the list of studios closing their doors continues to grow. Throughout this time, Remedy has remained independent, although in September it received a loan of 15 million euros (about $15.8 million) from Tencent as part of a publishing initiative.
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 at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be reached at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
