Remedy's Max Payne remakes and Control spinoff are now in 'production readiness' but the success of Alan Wake 2 might mean they're still a long way off

Alan Wake 2 is Remedy's big project of the moment, but it's far from the only thing the studio is working on. Today, as part of its most recent financial report, the company shared a look at how its other projects, including a sequel to Control and remakes of the first two Max Payne games, are coming along.

To be frank, there's not a lot of news to report: All of the games in development at Remedy are still in early stages of production. "Control 2 continues in the proof-of-concept stage," Remedy CEO Tero Virtala said in the company's latest business review. "The plans for this sequel are ambitious, and we have seen good progress both in the designs and in the game build. We will continue at this stage for the next few quarters. We focus on proving the identified key elements before moving to the next stage and scaling up the team."

Project Vanguard, which we still know virtually nothing about except that it's a multiplayer "games as a service experience" being developed in some form of partnership with Tencent, is even less well-developed at this point: Virtala said Remedy "is aiming towards completing the proof-of-concept stage by the end of the year."

Project Condor, a co-op Control spinoff, is a little further ahead, having moved from proof-of-concept to "production readiness," as have the Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes, which will be bundled together in a single package. "We have gained clarity on the style and scope of the game, and we have an exceptionally well-organized team working on it," Virtala said. "With these accomplishments, we are excited about the project and its future success."

Work on Alan Wake 2 will continue—there are two expansions planned—but now that it's out the door, development of these other games will accelerate. "Now that Alan Wake 2 has been launched, the sight is set on advancing our other game projects," Virtala concluded. "All these four projects will benefit from the additional talent transferring from Alan Wake 2 as it will enable the teams to take the necessary steps towards the next stages of development."

That acceleration may not be smooth and steady, however: Virtala said during an investors Q&A that while schedules for its future projects are in place, it's possible that the positive response to Alan Wake 2 could throw those plans off track. That happened with Control: Remedy had planned to get cracking on Control 2 right away once Control was out but wasn't able to do so because there was so much interest in the first game.

"What happened was a very positive one for us, because the interest for Control from different partners in the industry was growing, and actually we could benefit from that for the next one and a half years: Creating different versions of Control, getting actually good business to business deals, expanding the game to new platforms," Virtala said.

"That not only requires some people from the Control team, but also from our Northlight [Remedy's proprietary game engine] team and from our other support teams. So this is also an opportunity that we now need to keep an eye on, and then evaluate if it will have some effect on some of the schedules that we have."

For the record, no launch targets for any of Remedy's upcoming games was shared. The first Alan Wake 2 expansion, Night Springs, is currently expected to arrive in late spring 2024.

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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.