Remedy Entertainment

Remedy Entertainment is a developer and publisher.

Remedy Entertainment Webpage, Facebook

A Finnish development studio based in Espoo, creating games for personal computers, consoles, and mobile devices. The Max Payne series brought them international fame, and the company's face is its creative director, Sami Antero Jarvi, known as Sam Lake.

Remedy Entertainment's history

Prehistory

The history of Remedy Entertainment officially begins in August 1995, when a group of members of the Finnish demoscene decided to create their own development studio. The team's first headquarters was the basement of the parents of one of the founders, Samuli Syvahuoko.

The team quickly got to work on their debut project, a vehicular combat racing game titled Death Rally. The title was published by Apogee Software, and featured the voice of Sami Antero Jarvi, later known to the wider public as Sam Lake. Jarvi ultimately not only stayed with the studio but also became its creative director.

In 1999, after a brief dispute with LucasArts, which accused Remedy Entertainment of plagiarizing its logo, the studio unveiled a new one, which would serve as the company's signature logo for the next 24 years.

The age of Max Payne

After the premiere of Death Rally, Remedy began working on prototypes for their next projects, from which Scott Miller of Apogee Software (who would be publishing the team's next project) chose the isometric shooter Dark Justice. Over time, the game received not only a new title – Max Payne (although Max Heat was also considered) – but also a change in perspective to third-person. From the beginning, the game's lead designer, Petri Jarvilehto, had the game draw heavy inspirations from Asian action films. Sam Lake wrote the script for the project, taking inspirations from film noir; he also allowed his face to be used for the protagonist. During the works on the project, a delegation from the studio traveled to New York City, taking thousands of photos to best capture the atmosphere of the metropolis.

Max Payne, the game about the titular police officer conducting a private investigation into the murder of his wife and daughter, debuted on personal computers in July 2001. The game was a critical and commercial success, quickly gaining cult status. When Rockstar Games was entrusted with developing its console versions, its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, acquired the rights to the franchise for $10 million. The new publisher decided to create a sequel, entrusting development to Remedy Entertainment.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne was released in October 2003. Although the title received high praise from industry critics, its sales left much to be desired. After its publisher decided to "freeze" the franchise for the coming years, the team was left with no choice but to begin work on a completely new project.

Alan Wake and Quantum Break, or working with Microsoft

This time, the developers' primary sources of inspiration were Stephen King's novels and the Twin Peaks television series. Alan Wake, as the game was called, told the story of the titular character – a writer who came to the town of Bright Falls to get some rest and inspirations for his next novel. Once there, things quickly took an unexpected turn – his wife was kidnapped, and he discovered that dark, supernatural forces were at work there. What's more, the events surrounding Lake seemed to be straight out of his latest work.

As with Max Payne, the game was to take place in locations inspired by real-life places; this time, it was the northwest part United States, specifically the area around Crater Lake in Oregon, where studio members took over 40,000 photos. Although the developers initially planned to develop an open-world game, they ultimately decided on a linear experience.

The development of Alan Wake took over five years, and the game was published by Microsoft, securing its exclusive status for the Xbox 360.The game debuted in May 2010 and was warmly received by gamers and reviewers. In mid-2011, the publisher greenlighted a PC version, which was entrusted to Nitro Games; the PC version debuted in February 2012.

Although Alan Wake sold over 3 million copies, its sales weren't strong enough for Microsoft to invest in a full-fledged sequel. Instead, Remedy developed an action-focused spin-off titled Alan Wake's American Nightmare, which was released in 2012. Nevertheless, the developers persisted and tried to find another publisher for Alan Wake 2. Unfortunately, to no avail.

Despite everything, Microsoft had no intention of ending its partnership with the studio - it had to develop a completely new game under its supervision. That game was Quantum Break, a hybrid of a third-person shooter and a TV series, with its plot focused on time manipulation. The title, powered by the studio's new, proprietary technology – the Northlight engine – debuted in 2016 on PC and Xbox One and was warmly received by players and reviewers.

Searching for a new path

Meanwhile, the studio experimented with mobile games (releasing, among other things, a remake of Death Rally) and in the following years began exploring other ways of development. Remedy Entertainment debuted on the Finnish stock exchange (2017) and also entered into a partnership with Smilegate, which resulted in a story campaign for Crossfire 2 (later renamed CrossfireX). At the same time, the developers were working on their next major project.

It was Control - another science fiction third-person shooter. The game, published by 505 Games, debuted on PC and consoles in August 2019. By March 2021, the title had over 2 million players and won a number of industry awards. Interestingly, Control was the first Remedy Entertainment game since Max Payne 2 to be released on PlayStation consoles.

Return to roots

Meanwhile, in August 2018, it was announced that Alan Wake would be adapted into a television series. In June 2019, Remedy Entertainment purchased the rights to the franchise from Microsoft, and in March 2020, it announced that it had entered into a broad collaboration with Epic Games. This collaboration was to result in two projects, and while Remedy was to retain full control of the production process and intellectual property, Epic Games was to cover the costs of developing and publishing these games, sharing half of the profits with the developers. Over time, it was revealed that these enigmatic projects were the highly anticipated Alan Wake 2 and a remastered version of the first installment in the series.

In May 2021, the Chinese company Tencent acquired a 3.8% share in Remedy Entertainment, and in December, it was announced that it would be the publisher of the studio's new work – a multiplayer game codenamed Vanguard. In April 2022, we learned that Remedy Entertainment had entered into a partnership with Rockstar Games, which will result in a Max Payne Remake for PC and ninth-generation consoles. In mid-2022, the team opened a new development studio in Sweden.

In April 2023, the studio unveiled a new logo, intended to better reflect its international character and work on multiple projects simultaneously.

Alan Wake 2 and Control 2

Alan Wake 2 debuted in October 2023. The game was released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It was very well received. According to Metacritic, the average rating from industry media ranged from 89 to 95/100, while the average score from players was 8.6/10. Satisfied with this turn of events, the developers announced two major expansions: The Lake House and Night Springs.

In February 2024, the developers informed that Alan Wake 2 was their fastest-selling production, more than tripling the sales results achieved by Control during the same period after its release. Speaking of Control, at the end of February 2024, Remedy Entertainment announced that it had acquired full rights to the franchise from 505 Games.

In May 2024, Remedy Entertainment announced that its co-op game, codenamed Kestrel, which had been in development since November 2023 and was to be co-financed by Tencent, had been canceled. According to the developers, this decision freed up production capacity for other projects. Meanwhile, in June 2024, the first DLC for Alan Wake 2, Night Springs, debuted on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. In this DLC, players could play as character from other Remedy Entertainment games. That same month, the company's CFO, Terhi Kauppi, left the team.

In August, Remedy Entertainment announced a partnership with Annapurna Pictures. Under this agreement, the latter would co-finance and co-produce Control 2. Furthermore, the collaboration was intended to enable the development of movie and television adaptations of the Alan Wake and Control franchises.