Remedy teases a 'new, exciting early-phase project' in its latest business update

(Image credit: Remedy Games)

Control studio Remedy Entertainment has previously revealed that it is working on two new projects in partnership with Epic Games, one a "AAA multiplatform game" and the other a smaller-scale effort, along with a live service game codenamed Vanguard. In a quarterly business review released today, Remedy CEO Tero Virtala said work on all three, plus the singleplayer campaigns the studio is working on for CrossfireX and Crossfire HD, are coming along well.

"Remedy’s AAA game project with Epic Games is soon moving into full production, and the second, smaller-scale game continues in full production mode," Virtala said. "With Vanguard, our free-to-play co-op game project, we have now defined many of the core elements of the game. Development progresses at a good pace, internal playtesting continues, and we are starting the next phase of closed external gameplay testing."

Remedy has previously been a one-game-at-a-time studio, but in recent years (and particularly with the success of control and funding from Epic) the studio has expanded its headcount to enable the development of multiple projects simultaneously. Virtala said Remedy was up to 281 employees at the end of March 2021, and it is "piloting and evaluating new ways to attract and recruit talent."

Unfortunately, the report provides no new information about what these new games actually are. Crossfire is a long-running online FPS that's big in Asia, but CrossfireX hasn't been announced for PC yet (it's currently listed for Xbox One and Xbox Series X), while Crossfire HD is only slated to come out in China. Remedy creative director Sam Lake said last year that the studio is currently working on a new game in the "Remedy Connected Universe" that's widely expected to be Alan Wake 2, but nobody knows for sure—and the identity of the other new game is a complete mystery.

(I continue to hold out hope for a new Remedy-developed Max Payne—surely Epic can afford to buy it back from Rockstar, after all.)

The one thing we can say for sure is that work on Control, for now at least, is done, but even that leads to questions: Virtala said that nearly all of Remedy's internal Control developers have now moved on to other things, "including a new, exciting early-phase project." Is that something we haven't heard about previously, then? Given that all the Remedy developments we know about are either in, or close to, full production, it seems likely. I've reached out to Remedy for clarification and will update if I receive a reply.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.