Alan Wake 2 continues to be a success for Remedy, with the company reporting today it has recouped "most" of the development and marketing cost of Alan Wake 2 as of the end of September.
I am currently playing through it, and it has some of the best moments gaming has to offer. You don't normally see such a specific voice in games narratives these days. I have been really enjoying it.
So unlucky that 2023 was brimming with awesome games so AW2 had to compete with them all. Winning best narrative awards against BG3 was remarkable, and I honestly think it was well earned. Yet it got little to no exposure - only 1.6mil sales over a year and a half? It’s a 16mil game no doubt.
The only reason AW2 happened at all is because Epic paid for its development. Hate on the Epic store all you want (it deserves a lot of it), but it’s one of the few instances where it actually makes perfect sense that it’s an exclusive.
i think the biggest issue is that you only can buy it on playstation (for 80€ no less) and epic. I would love to play it but am not willing to pay any money via the epic store which doesnt even have a linux client
I’ll admit, AW2 has been a hard sell for me. Paranormal mystery always is, because it wants to invite you to ask questions, but it can pull answers literally out of anywhere. Why doesn’t anyone remember old events? Paranormal magic. How did Alan Wake survive at the bottom of a lake for all those years? Paranormal magic. Etcetera.
I don’t even mind games like Ace Attorney that set up a paranormal system like spirit channeling, but cleanly express all their rules and limits before they become involved in the mystery. I’ve watched some partial streams of AW2 but it felt so easy to get lost and have no expectations for it to suddenly defy.