Why Hasn't Alan Wake 2 Yet Made A Profit?
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
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Why is an extremely spec demanding game that's NOT on Steam not making a profit? What a conundrum
*poorly optimized
EXACTLY, wanted to look first for such a comment before watching. Now i'm eager for the 5 min video 😅...
@@deathtrooper2048your mum is poorly optimised
@@deathtrooper2048not really, it requires certain technologies that aren’t available on older hardware
@@deathtrooper2048 Is it though? Can you prove that it's poorly optimized? A demanding game doesn't automatically make it unoptimized.
Epic games store made people forget this game exists. It's a death sentence for discoverability
@@Nomad-qm3zf Not everyone is on PC.
not if it is free download or made a Benchmark out of it with autoupload video to UA-cam.
@@deathtrooper2048 not the point ffs
@@deathtrooper2048 Toms are though. And those players are vocal.
@@deathtrooper2048no, but many is on PC too though, and getting the game on steam would make a huge difference for PC gamers. I do have a PS5 too, but this game is so demanding i would rather run it on PC than console as my RTX 3080 is closer to a PS5 Pro.
No PS5 Physical on launch, No steam. They release the Physical way after the hype then charged $80. Epic is bad.
Walmart had the physical deluxe edition on sale for $49
@pig1111 I eventually bought the disc on PS5 and I think the game is just ok. I'm more of a fan of combat focused games and characters that don't talk to themselves.
@@TwilitVoyager it didn't come out until a year later and it cost like $100CAD on release. Only reason I don't have it on my PS5.
It went woke, went broke. It's not that hard. If they cut the $ spent on DEI and made a game they had originally intended, with original characters, they would be golden right now.
@@77dris There's absolutely nothing woke about Alan Wake 2. Stop spreading bs 😂
Remedy don't seem to understand that niche gameplay should NEVER be paired with niche hardware requirements. The two together guarantee failure.
On top of this, niche availability? What a massive f***ing surprise.
Who cares they’re here to make art and they do that they don’t care about endless profits like US capitalist companies do. Remedy makes art similar to Larian and BG3
Not selling physical was a dumb idea. Console bums love physicals
Do they need Epic's investment as well? This game is not a COD or the like, and yet they squander money like it is.
@@rps215 They did, Epic were the only ones willing to publish the game.
@@Masaim6 Yes, because AW II isn't a game for the mass market and is why it were hard to get funded.
Half of "Platinum" games are exclusives too, because almost no one wants to fund their niche games.
Sega and Sony refused to fund Bayonetta 2, 3 and Astral Chain. Nintendo funded all 3.
Remedy’s curse is making games that never sell very well but are top-quality in technology and graphics. The Northlight engine created by these Finns is simply brilliant.
The gameplay is horrible in AW2 at least. It's like they should make interactive movies instead.
They make incredibly demanding system requirement games that don't even perform well on top of the line PC's.
Alan Wake 2 is a walking simulator, it lacks in action and fun factor like the first game.
It's funny that with the release of AW2 people started comparing Sam Lake with Hideo Kojima cuz both of them are idiosyncratic directors who make cinematic games. However Kojima never compromised on gameplay to tell his stories. Lake is not even in the same ballpark as kojima@@i-am-the-slime
@@i-am-the-slimeyea and story is half bad, half exellent. but too boring aftee a while
@@jaydoode15 You definitely didn't play it, lol. It runs great on PC.
>high spec requirement
>not on Steam
aw geeze, I wonder what happened here?
You forgot it being a bad game.
@@Tuckerslam it was an ok game with great story but I can only run it like 15fps with an mid amd card
@@Tuckerslam That is like, your opinion man
An ok game??? Literally one of the best horror games of all time @@Foxtrop13
@@Foxtrop13
What card is that?
Without RT , medium AMD cards are fine for it
‘spose it just doesn’t have enough steam…
Epic comment
I GOGed.
Really makes you Itch.
What a torrent of spicy replies. Makes me tear up like there are onions routed to me eyes. Arrr. 🏴☠️
"Play the expert Miami theme"
Dance lessons for Sam Lake broke the budget.
I hope he got his money back b/c those dance moves were bush league af.
😂😂
You know it was Remedy paying Sweet Baby Inc. for Shaniqua's game, that not only took millions from Remedy, but tanked game sales to a certain degree.
@@Jucelegario again with the Baby Inc thing? Jeez
@@TehNumberOneBigBoss quatum break clip told us it was going to be a white wahman, that means it was forced by SB inc. plus, AW2 had her condemning white men. Yeah 100% forced DEI bs.
My entire friend group only buys physical console games outside of small indie titles. All of us are in our 30s/early 40s, which I would say is probably the target audience of this game in particular because we played the first game when it released. We were all looking forward to this game and several of us still have the collectors edition of the 360 version. Literally no one I know bought the game because everyone was waiting for a physical release. The physical release finally came out and I am the only person I know who was still interested enough to buy it, and even for me I didn't jump in right away. I think the game is absolutely amazing and I've been hyping it up to get others interested to give it a shot, but they really dropped the ball not having a physical version of the game when it was getting all of its glowing reviews.
I think a lot of people are forgetting the fact that it's a VERY niche game. They went from more approachable action thrillers (which they were excellent at) to überbizarre survival horror territory, which less people can enjoy.
Tbf I think they are excellent at both, but with the upcoming coop shooter, I think they’ve realized that they need something to make money too,
@ Oh yeah, they're masters of both, don't get me wrong. It's just that they built their reputation as a "cinematic thriller" powerhouse. Survival horrors are very specific, and paradoxically, there's quite a bunch of studios that make them, so the market is further diluted. AW1 did have some eerie moments, but anyone could in theory pick it up and finish it.
I played a bit of AW2 at my sister's house and sadly it's a no-go for me and for a lot of my friends who enjoyed 1 too. I'm pretty sure a lot of people feel the same. I don't want to judge how others do things based on my experience, I don't have the data, but I imagine that's how quite a lot of players' money unfortunately went elsewhere, regardless of EGS exclusivity or the lack of coming out on physical.
This game doesn't look though like it's a good survival horror, in it's actual gameplay.
Alan Wake 1 was way overrated
"roguelike card game" is pretty niche but balatro did alright on Steam
2:45 He's entirely right. EGS hurt the game a ton.
Also the fact it's a sequel to a cult game that's a bit more niche than something like an RE game you can just pick up and play. It's amazing, but hard to push mainstream.
Also they replaced the protagonist Alan Wake with some black empowered woman, who happened to be blackwashed from a blond Nordic beauty.
@9tailsninja Except that is not what happened at all and is a really slanderous thing repeated by ragebait channels.
@9tailsninja Wut? Even in the trailers you see Alan Wake was a playable character. What a weird assumption to make.
You can pick up and play a AW2 just fine, it's not like Prey 2017 or Deus Ex complexities it plays like your generic TPS.
But yeah EGS exclusivity hurts them in the long run.
The game would not have existed if not for EGS. So many people are either not aware of this or haven't considered it. While it was definitely a mistake to not release on Steam, which they should've, one can also argue that Epic didn't find that beneficial for the growth of their storefront.
Not on Steam. Released with no physical copies. Hmmmm🤔🤔🤔
Same is Fortnite, they make Billions from it. Why ?
@@ODIOPOWER completely different types of games. Fortnite is targeting kids buying skins, etc. Not the same audience.
Extra 100k sales on Steam wouldn't change overall picture.
@@ODIOPOWER
Fortnite is free2p and full of microcrapsactions.
Dragon age is on steam and it bombed.
Simple answer.
No physical release and Epic exclusive. Sure way to not make enough profit.
There is physical edition (at least on ps5)
XDEFIANT was pretty good. Being on the ubisoft store killed it. Just bring your games to steam.
@recordinginprogress7355 now, yes. A long time after launch. Not when the game came out.
@recordinginprogress7355 yes I know. I meant no physical at initial release date. Almost a year later is just to late.
@@Mick2Kprecisely.
Is it even out? I just checked steam and no sign of it
Epic Store exclusive, not out on Steam yet.
I don't even know if they'll release it on Steam, I refuse to buy from Epic Games Store
@@NoTLucas sarcasm is lost on you...
The Epic exclusive is a massive mistake. Globally, half of PC gamers either buy from steam or check pirating, the only thing they pay for that is not steam are the established mega titles like League of Legends or Diablo 4 etc.
Epic partly funded it, what do you want them to do say no thanks?
they tried to be cute with digital only release ... they found out.
Physical sales have been in decline for over a decade. Even if they had a physical release, it would only have increased sales by 10%. I’m glad you care about it, but most people are lazy and will just buy a digital copy out of convenience.
@@primevaltimesWrong
@@primevaltimes They may be in decline, but they're still prevalent.
@@Pointman11111 the average person sticks to digital. Physical is becoming more and more niche as time goes on.
Poe2 is a digital only release, it broke all records on Steam
Not being on Steam definitely hurt their sales but Epic also bankrolled the development costs so they really had little choice.
Yes, this game wouldn't exist still if not for Epic's money, that's the part many people keep forgetting.
Why didn't people on consoles buy it? Okay, fine, PC sales will be significantly less because it's only on the Epic Games Store (which for some reason a good chunk of people are alergic to... it's still PC, who cares that it's not Steam, seriously), but at the same time game was day 1 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.... where were those people? And if you tell me no physical sales, that's utter bullshit again, because according to numbers available out there 70% of game sales on PS5 ARE DIGITAL, and I bet you that number is even higher on Xbox (although MUCH smaller install base, so won't make as much of a difference).
So really, what the fuck? Everyone keeps talking about wanting publishers to take risks, make a sequel to X or Y game. Well they did it finally with Alan Wake II and no one bought it... and that is why we get live service game number 179 and Call of Duty 69, or whatever copy/pasted EA sports title dominating the sales charts. PC sales were lower, and we can see the reasons there, but console gamers really have no excuse for not getting Alan Wake 2.
Epic could easily allow it on Steam, they just don’t really give af
@@Ebosan87it could exist by funding in other ways lol
“tHiS wOuLdNt eXisT wItHoUt ePic” is the laziest fallacy.
It was funded by epic, if it wasnt, they would have looked elsewhere for funding.
@@JustinCatalano The problem is that they HAD already looked elsewhere for funding. Remedy had been trying to get Alan Wake 2 off the ground for years before they were in talks with Epic, but other publishers either just weren't biting, or they weren't coming to the table with terms that Remedy were in alignment with. Epic allowed them to make the game they wanted to make on terms that were favorable on paper; the publisher bankrolls the entire development and I get pretty much unrestrained creative freedom to make my passion project? And all I have to do is hit a certain threshold of sales, after which every bit of revenue will go to me? That's a tough deal to pass up.
While there have been challenges due to the storefront it's being sold on (and the lack of visibility that entails) Alan Wake 2 will eventually hit its target, as Remedy games always sell pretty modestly up front and have a long tail. But I imagine Remedy were in a position where the game either doesn't get made at all, or it gets made, but it winds up being something that they're not proud of. As the poster above said, in a world full of safe bets, it's refreshing to see a project of AW2's caliber and budget be able to just run wild from a creative standpoint, even if there are caveats to that.
So? Every other publisher also had their own game store, doesn't mean their games are exclusive to it. This is just epic being Ars@#holes as usual
Lots of people refuse to buy a game when it’s only available on Epic store, if it was on steam it would surely sell a lot more
Same is Fortnite, they make Billions from it. Why ?
@ Fortnite is a live service game which is more known than Alan wake 2, and besides no one is talking about Fortnite rn
That could go some way to explaining PC players. What about console players?
@pig1111 You are correct. Did those games have other problems too? Absolutely.
However many of those problems were caused by woke policies and actions of the development companies and their employees.
How many? That's open to debate. Though enough that they significantly hurt the games chances of success.
@@BusesAreFatCars Maybe those games had problems BECAUSE resources were wasted on DEI and ESG etc, as opposed to coding, testing, art design etc?
John's right. I am literally just waiting for Alan Wake 2 to appear on Steam before I buy it. EGS just doesn't seem like a sustainable venture and I am not going to buy *digital* goods from a store that looks like it's relying on cheap short term business tactics to gain marketshare instead of making long term investments and actually building a viable, long-lasting platform. EGS has been around for how long and Fortnite has earned how many millions of dollars and yet EGS is still just a glorified launcher. It just isn't a store that makes me think its going to be around in the next few years and I have no interest in trying to fight for the ownership of my games when it inevitably collapses. I also really don't want to support Epic's shitty business practices of trying to introduce exclusivity into the PC market place, which I think is honestly the last open bastion against companies constantly trying to lock down our experiences.
Shitty practices, like what? Being the only ones in this damn industry that were willing to finance Alan Wake 2? You know Epic paid for this game, right? This is not some game they paid to be exclusive, like you seem to think they did (they stopped doing that as it wasn't really moving the needle), this is a game published by them, a game they financed because no one else was. Sam Lake has been trying to get Alan Wake 2 off the ground for a decade. The first attempt turned into American Nightmare, then the second attempt turned into Quantum Break. Third attempt got turned into Control and FINALLY, after so long someone was willing to give them the money to make Alan Wake 2. That was Epic, it wasn't Valve, it wasn't Microsoft or Sony, Take Two or EA, Ubisoft or I don't know... whatever Embracer likes to call themselves today. And mind you, Alan Wake 2 was not a cheap game, it was Remedy's most expensive project to date.
Same with metro exodus. I am a big fan of the first 2 and i just forgot about exodus after the epic debacle for years until i week ago noticed its on steam and bought the enhanced edition for 3€. Amazing game. best 3€ ive ever spent. I own 1 game on epic launcher because friends wanted to coop it but other than that i dont buy anything from it.
@@Ebosan87 Being the only ones willing to finance a game doesn't excuse them for all the other crap they've pulled with EGS. It's crazy how you're willing to just roll over and accept what they've been doing to the PC industry just because they financed a game that you like.
You know damn well the only reason why they stopped exclusivity was because it was putting them into the red, not out of good will. I don't want to do business with companies that are willing to do those kinds of dirty tactics instead of actually improving their crappy storefront.
Also, stop buying into the narrative that Alan Wake 2 couldn't get financed. You seriously believe that? It's obvious that its a PR tactic meant to justify Epic exclusivity. Every game that's been an exclusive has said that exact same line in interviews.
If they had released on Steam and other platforms, it would have done way better. This is also why Remedy is looking at other publishers instead of Epic this time around, because they know what exclusivity does in the long-term.
@@Ebosan87 Oh stop acting like Epic is a good guy for funding Alan Wake 2. Are Konami good guys for funding the Metal Gear Solid series, or are they still garbage because they sabotaged the development of MGSV and Silent Hills? Is the guy who stole Disco Elysium from Studio ZA/UM a good guy because without his funding the game wouldn't exist at all, or is he still garbage because he stole one of the best RPGs of this decade from people with real talent so that he could try and sell TV series rights to Amazon?
Just because Epic was willing to fund Sam Lake's fever dream vision for Alan Wake 2 doesn't make them suddenly not a giant corporation that prioritizes maximizing shareholder value above all else.
I see you weren't born yet in those time when Epic pull those shitty tricks on Steam when their first launch the store. Maybe spare some time to do some research instead of picking up free game yeah?@@Ebosan87
A big part of it is that it wasn't on Steam, but also... while the game is creatively unique and admirable in many regards, for myself and many other reviewers I've seen - as a _game_ - it's just okay to play. Normally I look forward to replaying your Resident Evils and the like, but my second playthrough for The Final Draft felt like a slog and I just wanted it to be over. It's hard because I love the direction and creativity, but not so much the gameplay.
How is it creatively unique?
That's true, if I have to play again, I will rather play the first one than AW2. The first half wasn't an interesting story, it felt confusing and rather boring. Even after the end I'm not sure what happened to his wife or what the future holds for Alan. I don't think a lot of people enjoy this mystery genre.
@@bricaaron3978 Mixing different mediums together - game, live action, written stories, artwork. For example, in the dark place (another dimension), there is graffiti (scanned from real life), posters, signs, etc. that play on Alan's psyche. These aren't highlighted at all - just if you happen to pay attention to your surroundings you'll notice them, and they add to the psychological horror because you realise the writing on the wall is about you, almost like the game is reaching out and speaking directly to the player. It's easy to say "boring, I've seen that in another game", but Remedy are masters at it. Everything is tailored in such a way that you even pick up on micro details that make the world seem more real, more terrifying. Add to that the multiverse-type story they are trying to craft by linking all their games together, which so far has been pulled off really well. And in terms of writing, Sam Lake is a master at writing mysteries that give you those tingles of fear akin to reading a psychological thriller.
Yeah thats the two biggest issues and fanboys would still defend this bs game till they die. A game with boring gameplay is like a death sentence and the reason why i stopped playing AW2 very early and just watched the rest on youtube and hell im glad that i safed my time, this game also has no fucking story at all
@@unusualkmc I see what you mean and I noticed a lot of those details myself, but it didn't have that much of an effect on me tbh. It was really neat at first, but so much of it was repeated in so many areas that it didn't feel as tailored as you say and it lost its luster for me.
I think they were banking on if AW2 was quality top to bottom that word would spread and everyone would get it. There’s SO many options nowadays that you can no longer bet on just being a good game.
Which is unfortunate, but at least Remedy seems optimistic in wanting to keep expanding their franchises and world. Their games have long tails so I doubt this is a complete failure, and I think it is largely due to the inflated budget caused by the epidemic in 2020, when the game started development.
I suppose it just wasn't fun enough.
@@stanislavkimov2779 it wasn't on steam. end of story for me.
@@stanislavkimov2779that's broken logic. People who haven't bought the game, haven't played it. Therefore they don't know if it's fun or not.
@@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu they saw what the game is, saw the gameplay, the reviews, heard what others said.
If my logic is broken, then your logic means that any game or movie should earn equal amount of money, disregarding the quality, because people may only learn of it after they have played/watched it and already paid the money.
Reminds me of Bladerunner 2049 in a way. An expertly executed and lovingly made sequel to an older classic with a fanbase that was maybe misjudged as being bigger than it really was. That film had stars and incredible artistry and it was a huge flop. Wider audiences just weren't interested. But AW2 is esoteric. It feels more like an experimental indie game most of the time than AAA. Thats part if why i love it, though.
People aren't that willing to jump into a direct sequel of a story -driven linear game, if they've not played the first one, I think.
There are some examples like Witcher 3 or Resident Evil 2 remake, but both of those made it very clear that it wasn't important to have played the previous ones to jump in.
The first Alan Wake isn't that big of a title in the first place (for good reason in my opinion, as I find it terribly mediocre) and that probably impacted the willingness of people to jump into the sequel.
I think this would be more analogous if Bladerunner 2049 only released in Regal cinemas or something
@@thereminslilly8782 no, Blade Runner 2049 analogy is good, Steam or GOG wouldn't make a difference because it flopped on every platform, general audience just doesn't care.
You know what was depressing? I saw 2049 in theaters and by 45 minutes in, over half the audience walked out.
@@BlazingOwnager That isn't surprising as a lot of longtime Blade Runner fans, me included, felt 2049 was just kinda meh.
I don't know what I wanted out of a Blade Runner sequel but that wasn't it... at least it was far better than Blade Runner Black Lotus.
Epic exclusive and no retail so no surprise. Would have bought it a long time ago of it would be available on Steam.
I'd buy it if it was on GOG or some other store. The EGS is borderline unusable and lacks major features. So laggy on my recent PC too. I also don't really trust Epic.
Same is Fortnite, they make Bilions from it. Why ?
None would make a major difference.
@@ODIOPOWERits a free to play live service game, thats why
Playing Alan wake 2 it was so obvious this was a project of passion. If it breaks even I’m sure they will be absolutely pleased with that
The title was Alan Wake 2 but it's about another strong independent DEI propoganda and a 100 gb download with $ 70-100 price and it needs you bury non mess shader's GPU aka buy another gpu in the middle of unstable global economy.
Psychological horror is a niche genre in gaming to begin with couple that high budget, no physical and no steam release = No profit.
RE4 remake and SH2 remake (All remakes damn) made a profit tho, specially RE. No Steam and demanding requirements hurt the game really bad
The budget was ≈ $60/70 million. It's not very expensive given it's scale and ambition. There also would not be an Alan Wake 2 at all if epic didn't front the money
@@praisetheoakone thing. RE isn’t a psychological horror.
And Silent Hill has a massive cultural standing, even with its lower sales and popularity to RE.
Alan Wake was a niche within a niche, since it was really blurring the first game was already blurring the line of what is considered a horror game.
@@praisetheoak resident evil isn't psychological horror
@@praisetheoak Resident Evil and Silent Hill are much bigger IPs than Alan Wake.
I’m ready to help make the game profitable as soon as it lands on Steam!
And me as soon as they bring the original Saga back.
EGS was a mistake, I personally do not buy games on that platform. It came free with my 4090 though.
@pig1111 I don't trust them as a company. I prefer GOG since you own your game there and there is no copy protection your download is the actual game. Steam because it is proven and stable platform. EGS saying if steam got rid of their 30% market fee they will close shop does not inspire me to buy into the platform not to mention the socal features that are not present on the platform like voice chat friends and the community features of Steam I am not convinced that investing in that platform is a good idea. It's what makes me leery of software as a service kind of platforms anyway. I remember having games for windows disappear with some of my purchases which was annoying and that was coming from MS.
Anything that helps break the valve monopoly on pc gaming is a win, we consumers don’t benefit with only one option as you can see with how valve monetize games like cs2.
@@juancarlosalonso5664 psst I look at Valve as the only reason PC gaming is thriving right now. Although since I subscribe to gamepass I have not been buying as many games on there lately. MS certainly abandoned PC gaming and doubly so when it made a gaming console. It took losing the console generation after generation to finally decide to marry the two which it should have been doing in the first place.
@pig1111 The platform doesn't matter really as long as you can find a good deal on it.
Because they waited 13 years to make a sequel to a Xbox 360 exclusive game that was good but not particularly amazing.
A niche game where you don't even play the protagonist most of the time that requires high specs and is only available on Epic.
And maybe ... just maybe, it's not that great of a game. I finished the first one and the second one I couldn't get past the opening section because it was so slow and dull. I don't want to know why they started dancing or what this is all about. Remedy's writing is getting worse with each title.
I can never connect to the characters and the intrigue is not interesting enough. Control had the same problem, the main character is dull as hell and so are the rest. Plus the gameplay loop is always missing that extra something to keep me engaged.
I waited to buy it till the physical disc came out. Same with Black Myth: Wukong. If there was no physical edition, I would have waited till it was roughly 50% off on the PS Store before buying. I refuse to pay full price for a digital game.
It's not profitable because casual people didn't want to play it. It's a neish game, like most Remedy's games besides Max Payne.
Not every game's going to appeal to a wide audience.
My friend just got this for 30€ few days ago from PS Sale. He's gonna get the DLC for 10€ soon. We're both big Remedy and AW fans. I will 100% eventually get the same, but at the moment (and realisticly probably forever and ever) I already have too many games to finish.
It was well made, but boring. I only finished it because I paid for it (and the DLCs).
I decided to try it 🏴☠️ copy since it got so much praise for an amazing story.
While I was interested, it felt so boring to actually play. Dropped it.
For me I didn't buy it because it's not on STEAM.
2:42 directly addresses the real reason without all the unnecessary stuff the first guy said lol
Until this point I was watching and thinking "What are they still talking about? Aren't they going to address that obvious elephant in the room?"
Nope. The reason is that the majority is not racist. So they do not support such woke toxic racist work. But you people refuse to accept that
Well they did make a buttload of money by just being exclusive to Epic Store. It also cut a lot of funding/publishing costs.
Easy, 2 reasons why:
1.) Its not on Steam
2.) Its an extremely demanding game so alot of people won't try the game out
3) Sweet Baby Inc
4) Not enough Alan Wake
5) Not good enough as a survival horror
6.) The real Psychological Horror game a.k.a Silent Hill 2 Remake got released and making more profits.
true that - i look at the performance results of others playing the game and i think..... okay, maybe i'll play the game after another GPU upgrade. probably don't want to play it on my 4070Ti, it's not fast enough.
infact, even if i had a 4090 i'd be looking at it and still thinking i'm not sure my GPU is fast enough to have a good experience in this game.
@yutro213 I don't think most people outside of your echo chamber know or care about SBI. A simpler explanation seems to be that it is just a bland looking game just like the first. There is a reason that Harry Potter books sell better than David Foster Wallace books and it has nothing to do with quality.
@@yutro213
get a hobby man
Literally what John said for me. There wasn't a physical release at launch and a year later Im just not eager to play it now.
I'm sure I'll buy it and play it eventually but with new games coming out it just kinda keeps getting pushed back
You should play it, it was a great experience
1. Game wasn’t available physically for a long while.
2. Digital release on PC is still exclusive to Epic’s game store.
Epic screwed this amazing game.
3. The SBI finger of death.
oh shut up. @@phattjohnson
@@phattjohnsonTouch grass, anyways OP the ironic part is that they helped Remedy by funding AW2.
Alan Wake 2 did one huge mistake.
it came too late, as a sequel to a game that didn't blow people away and had repetitive gameplay .. and to top it off, you didn't even start off playing the game as Alan Wake.
i know some people who wanted to play the game but didn't like the idea of playing as a new protagonist character.
I put around 2 or 3 hours into it, but haven't touched it since, because the headspace room thing put me off, evidence showing up from thin air and such, absolutely not my kind of game.
The first one was barely a financial success. Why did they think the second one would have a lot of attention and financial success?
Was looking for this comment. The 2nd one seemed like such a vanity project for the Game Director imo.
It hasn't mainstream appeal or wide enough appeal to make a profit in the 1st place. Also the lack of physical release for consoles was a death bell.
Also money mismanagement, AKA the other half of Concord's problem (1 hour credit roll). They also took a big investment from Epic of course and that dug them an even deeper hole. I'd also question whether that investment is even worth it. I mean what basically targetted to be an AA game but using AAA kind of budget, and with investors' money.
I don't think Remedy is the type of studio thah puts "commercial success" in front of creative freedom. They want the games to be successful in so much as it let's them keep the lights running. And it seems they are doing just fine since they are still going.
"The PC version of Alan Wake made its money back within 48 hours of going on sale, Remedy has revealed.
Alan Wake PC launched on Steam on Thursday, 16th February - nearly two years after the Xbox 360 version. It came with a raft of new features, including visual improvements, stereoscopic 3D support and multi-screen functionality - all for £23. "
They didn't, Remedy is optimistic about sales.
No surprise. Most gamers don't want to play 30fps or 800p60 in 2024. A better optimized game would have a lot more potential.
Exactly. I just got a Series X last year as my first console. I have about 12 years of backlog games to play. I am super impressed with games from the 2012-2019 era. But I've played a few of the new games from the 2020s that look piss poor to say the least. Immortals Of Aveum was the worst looking (and playing) game I've ever played, and the characters were terrible. I'm now playing Guardians Of The Galaxy and the choice is either a fuzzy 1080p at 60 fps or 4k at 30 fps. That's a terrible choice to have to make.
@@77drisImmortals Of Aveum was truly a terrible looking game. The textures and stuttering took me out of it constantly. I don’t even understand how it could look worse than games from a decade ago. And the textures looked better in Skyrim on the PS3. Wonder if this is all due to the UE5.
@@77dris yeah these new games look like trash. I didn't bother installing Guardians, Stalker 2, Starfield etc on gamepass.
Older enhanced titles look much better. Gears 5, Doom Eternal and Forza Horizon 5 are the best looking titles imo. I take my hat of to Indiana Jones though it looks great.
If this ever comes to steam, I'll buy it. Despite needing epic for Unreal, I refuse to support their anticompetetive storefront.
Remedy has been discussing ROI not being met, which is different from break even/profit margin.
The royalty arrangement may not be at the break even point either, we don't know how the contract was actually set up.
In an era where ea, activision, microsoft, bethesda, 2k, square, even ubisoft gave up on their anti steam crusade and went back to Steam, not publishing any game on steam is a death sentence. The only justification for not using steam is a different pricing model like gamepass. That and alan wake 1 being a niche game, and 2 being an even more niche genre means low sales.
Its not profitable because they spent too much on production for the popularity of what it is. Its not a bad franchise, its just not popular enough to offset that amount of production cost. On top of all that, no one talks about how good the game itself is, they always talk about graphics and benchmarks. Then they limited its success more by not putting it on multiple store fronts and having physical versions.
They didn't spend too much on it, it has much lower budget than any AAA game developed in US.
@captainronlives you know how you know anyone spent too much to make something? If they didnt get their return on it, thats how you know, they didnt get their return on development cost, so it cost too much for what it is.
@@anthonyrizzo9043 the problem is you can't make this game cheaper and not sacrifice quality.
@captainronlives have to better budget the money for what kind of game it is and what the expected sales are, if the game isnt that populat to make up for a huge budget, then you have to plan accordingly and make it a good game without spending too much. Also more money doesnt mean better game.
@@anthonyrizzo9043 the budget is not huge at all, it's at least twice cheaper than price tag of average AAA title, you can't make it as good while spending a lot less than it already cost, it would've been AA game with many cut corners, it's not worth to make it if you can't do it right.
Couldn't even decently optimize it for PS5 (lol), not on Steam, what a mystery.
Not launching it on Steam was a BIG mistake, but also the original was never a big seller.
Great games that seem... cursed.
Released it only digitally for over a year. My hype died, waiting that long. They deserve this.
Name of the game is alan wake. Play as him 50% of the game. 2. Didnt release on steam. 3. Epic is terrible. 4. No physical release.
Remedy is not a hit maker. They make expensive cult games
I guess this should be warning for studios taking deals from Epic exclusives
I’m sure the money from Epic was very nice. As a studio they would have to give me an outrageous amount of money to make it exclusive to Epic.
@@TheProphegyThe issue with taking Epics money is that Remedy now needs to pay then back for the investment, plus any extra nonsense they agreed too, but since the game lost them money, it's going to take a lot longer resolve their debt and detract possible revenue from future projects to pay it off.
It's a really fantastic game, and I hope this doesn't hinder Remedy's future projects. It deserved so much more and hopefully they can continue to make these weird, offbeat stories.
- didnt play Alan Wake 1 or 2
- not on steam
- high spec requirement
@pig1111woke is when black people in my video games 🥺🥺🥺
Please get a grip
Games sell the most copies on consoles, usually. In very few cases, it's an even split between PC and consoles.
PC requirements and no Steam release don't explain the lacking sales on consoles.
@regawdless2264 good point!
@pig1111 unironic woke usage in the wild
@pig1111 nope just like pointing out anytime I see “woke” in the wild.
It’s a phenomenal game, just got it on ps5 not long ago and it’s mind blowing. Remedy is in it for the art and the craft, not to just make endless profits. They’re doing just fine financially.
The answer is simple - it wasn't a stable release on consoles from a technical point of view. They should focus more on getting the console versions to a good state.
Because it's not on Steam 😒
Same is Fortnite, they make Billions from it. Why ?
The game was released on all major consoles, it didn't sell well there either, why would Steam make a difference if people just don't care about it?
lol.. irrelevant. they made a alan wake that did not feature alan wake. gamers reject that nonsense.
@@denhawken so you didn’t play Alan wake 2 for more than 2 hours? Lol the game is a deuteragonist setup, you play as Alan wake get out of your echo chamber of right wing stupidity
@@TheCocomungesLol, people want to play as Alan wake the entire game not less than half. They had to virtue signal though.
Because no Steam and no physical Copy at launch.
Same is Fortnite, they make Billions from it. Why ?
@ no way you’re comparing Alan Wake 2 to Fortnite 💀
Dragon age has both and is not selling?
@ yeah because the new Dragon Age is dogshit 🤣
@@leospeedleo True
I may be out of touch so forgive if I am wrong but, isn’t Alan Wake relatively niche?
It is, not many people cared about the first game either.
@@gorky_vk the first game didn't sell very well either until the remaster came out. Even then it's a game that most people can recognize by name, but don't really know much about.
Yeah that's why Microsoft wasn't interested in finding a sequel and Epic was pretty much the only company willing to take the risk on this project which is why they ended up with it.
@pig1111 It isn't niche. It is a generic 3rd person shooter (all 3rd person shooters play the same, there is nothing that could be done post 2000 that could improve the mechanics) but the same can be said about Gears of War, Tomb Raider, the recent "Ghost Recon" games, and every other TPS released in the past 25 years.
The story is okay, but pretends it is smart when it isn't yet is harder to follow due to how it is told and swapping between protagonists. The end result is an underwhelming story that at times literally solves mysteries for you out of the blue, while not really progressing the actual story much. Anderson's character has a bad voice actress (she is British and it shows), her character is lame, clearly a diversity attempt which stands out given her relation to other characters.
Alan Wake 1 had a better story and generally the fighting was better to. AW2 is not a horrible game, but graphics aside it is underwhelming. Journalists rate the game high because you spend more time playing as An-duh-sun than the protagonist, Alan Wake.
@@Flogger23m AW isn't some "generic 3rd person shooter". If you like to believe that to convince yourself that you didn't like it just because of the main character skin& voice fine but to me it looks more like you expected a 3rd person shooter and ended up disappointed because the game is something else.
EGS-exclusivity is a death knell for PC games.
ESG and DEI.
@pig1111Darling, he is 100% right.
@@bekerashes
Channels like this always dances around talking about that. 🤔
@@JokersDiscipleprobably because DEI has little to do with game writing. Lol don't be delusional
Not on steam.
It's called Alan Wake, but 70% of playtime is with another character called Saga because of diversity and inclusion
They screwed up not making it physical. I had to go out of my way to wait and get it from limited run games. I want to own my stuff
read the EULAs. You never "owned" any game, just a license to use it and maybe a box and disc.
People make excuses for the game but it's boring. The game was on PlayStation and Xbox so the Steam thing doesn't matter because the game was available to 100m players.
If Remedy made an FBI detective game with their incredible visuals, I'd be all in. But this whole "dark place" nonsense looks completely unappealing.
I understand the feeling, and I'd sure as hell love to see Remedy make a more straight-laced detective game, but that was never going to be this game's thing. The murder investigation, and Saga's means of handling her detective work, are simply framing devices to bring somebody new into this world of the unknowable, to have a naturally curious hero drawn into an eldritch mystery without a clear explanation.
It's a good thing you are not game developer.
The nonsense here is the game should have been about alan wake and what we get saga Andersen😮😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
@@Klaatu6432 Who was awesome and her parts were great, game blew past any expectations I could have had coming from the first one couple years ago
Alan Wake went Alan Woke on top of Epic exclusivity, a high price, and crazy hardware requirements. No surprises here.
Ignoring the elephant in the room...
Wich one? The pisspoor boring ass gameplay or the non-existent story?
@@makmedia_tv Why do you have a full clown opinion? It has the best video game story of the last 20 years, absolute masterpiece, and top tier gameplay.
I'm enthuastic Alan Wake 2 exists, but its a sequel to a 13 year old 83/100 game that sold 3 million units as a MGS published, heavily promoted Xbox 360 title. It has pretty heavy system requirements and doesn't exactly run great on consoles, not even the Pro. I think Control 2 should do better financialy, it's a more recent IP in a more popular genre, as long as they target 60fps on console and don't go too nuts on the visuals.
It ran great on my PS5 at release. Don't know what you're talking about.
@@rickkorkmazlmao it was 800p60 on ps5. Garbage
You guys will never talk about Sweet Baby Inc and the woke propaganda that killed so many games and studios, will you? Except maybe to defend it.
Because it's pathetic and false, and they're a serious gaming channel, not like the grifters who love to talk about this stuff.
@@jassykat It is pathetic but not false. It can be verified with a few clicks by anyone not as disingenuous as you.
Who cares that it hasn't made a profit yet? Epic sure doesn't, because if they did they would have never funded it in the first place. You don't have to have a PHD in business to figure out a squeal to a cult classic from 10+ years ago was not going to make a ton of money. I actually hope epic throws some money at some other older dead IP's and funds new life in them. It's great for gamers.
No joke, I have literally seen many people say that they would have rather the game not exist at all if it meant the game wouldn't be on Steam. Been saying for years that for these anti-epic people to them a store is far more important to them than the actual games are, and they keep on proving right.
@Wolfeisberg that's ridiculous, they might as well play on a console then when you have no choice. Elitist much... Lol
Because it's not what the fans wanted from it. We wanted Alan Wake, not race swapped Saga Anderson.
As someone who waited over 10 years for a sequel to Alan Wake, to get a follow-up in which the main character is barely in the game is not something I ever wanted.
More than half of the game is *barely?
@@captainronlives How about 100% since he's the main character and we wanted his story, not someone else's.
Spot on.
@@captainronlives saga should have her own game that can fail instead of bringing down a beloved character like alan
@@ethanwright752 she didn't bring him down, the whole point of the character is to save Alan from the dark place because he needs external help from someone.
Cause it's a woke mess with girlboss black chick and John Wick from Temu.
No physical release at launch
Physical amounts to a small percentage of total sales.
And about 0% of PC sales.
Same is Fortnite, they make Billions from it. Why ?
Physical copies don’t sell near as much as people want to believe. The game was $25 on Epic and still is not selling well.
@@bfhandsomeface409 Physical sales are still a massive part of console it's a big deal it not being there
@@Bargate It's 30% in 2024, on PS5. Yes, that's still a big enough chunk that it's worth having a physical copy for many big PS5 titles, but where the hell were the other 70% that would have gotten it digital anyway? That's what I'm wondering. And physical will probably be 20% in 2025 (it was 40% in 2023 on PS5) until it's low enough that they only do it for overpriced special editions that people are stupid enough to pay for.
Modern games will never be profitable as long as they focus on graphics and narrative instead of focusing on gameplay and increased interactivity. In addition to that, we have channels like these to deter the focus away from gameplay and focus instead on unnecessary details in graphics. Good job, gaming industry. Good job, DF.
I want games to be artistic, not aim for action and profit. Maybe we are a minority but I'm glad there are games like this for us
Its not only about Epic Games, I bought it then refunded it. It is because with my RTX3080, I was getting below 60FPS in 1440p (Without RT and Medium Settings).
I loved Sam Lake since 2001 because of Max Payne but I could not give him money for this lazy unoptimized trash. Maybe when I get a 5070/5080 I will get it for $5-$10 in steam.
Still an amazing game, just finished it. All risks and dumb things aside remedy is one of the last studios that is allowed to make massive single player games that actually feel different from all the shooters and RPGs. I also think its sick all of their games are connected, i hope they continue to get the funding they need to make experiences that dont get made anymore.
Cuz it's wack. It's convoluted. The creators like the smell of their own farts and have to put themselves in everything they work on. Also, it's the furthest thing from survival horror ever. Beat it on the hardest difficulty with enough ammo to take over an entire planet on both sides of the story.
Ill tell you why the game hasn't turned a profit. No physical release on day 1 and poor hardware optimization. I have a 4070 ti super and the best i can do is 1440p at ultra setting without ray tracing turned on. And even then I'll see the framerate dip to the mid 50s during certain scenarios
I'm experiencing the same thing with the same graphics card and a 7800X3D and 64GB of ram. Even on the lowest settings, frame rates drop to the 40s and it stutters constantly. The game runs like crap.
Because the game was woke and not about Alan Wake but somebody else.
You don't even get to meet Alice, which was the whole point of this whole franchise. And barely any gameplay as Alan.
But somehow they thought I was gonna care about some black girlboss and her daughter lol.
@9tailsninjathis! People buy unoptimized games if it's fun and what gamers actually want. AW2 was the game for Kotaku editor Alisa
would have loved to play as saga if it was the original actress that captured that xfiles vibe they were going for
It is the sequel to a game that was not originally a success, you have to play the first part and control (and a DLC) to understand most of what happens in the story, it is a horror game which if you are not a recognizable IP like RE you do not generate money, now add to that that it did not have a physical edition or a release on Steam
No physical release. Thats a lot of store marketing that got missed.
>Digital only on consoles.
>EGS only on PC.
Let's not forget SBI too for those people who recently discover that. As well require some pretty beefy specs which most people have weaker specs then a PS5 now days.
I have a pretty high end PC that can run Tekken 8, God Of War Ragnarok, Resident Evil 4 at really smooth framerates but AW2 really needs an SSD to run without hiccups and yet audio desyncs happen in the cutscenes, especially during that awesome music video section.
The gameplay is also rather lacking, you spend most of your time exploring and solving puzzles rather than shooting at enemies. I know it's mostly a psychological horror but it's not fun from a gameplay perspective, though it is entertaining from the writing and presentation.
I would still recommend it, but revisiting it can be rough.
No offense... But you can't really call a PC without an ssd high-end... Not for many years actually, I think it's been almost mandatory for close to 10 years now.
So you're the guy that takes 8 minutes to load into my Tekken 8 matches
I hate to say it but while there are huge fans of Remedy, myself included.. Alan Wake as a series requires a little more thought than "big monster go rawwrr" of most survival horror. It just doesn't have the same mass appeal - it's a game more for David Lynch cosmic horror sci-fi fans than it is general audiences. All of it's themes are more metaphorical and introspective than "guy grows tentacle arms and throws boulders at you." I say this as someone who loves both kinds of games.
True the thematics are great and the game directions is incredible. But the gameplay loop itself is just not compelling enough. I finished AW2 but have no desire to ever replay it, even though it's 1/4 the length of Elden Ring, which is highly replaceable
@@chris42069 I can agree with this to some extent, and I say this as someone who likes the universe enough to have played it twice - the DLCs showed what was wrong with it. They held the combat back too much, didn't put in the crazy arenas, limited your items so much.. the game was actually way more fun when it let you cut loose. I'd honestly say The Lake House DLC did the horror pacing better than the main campaign by a lot.
Control has way better overall combat pacing. I know it's another genre, but it just *feels* good the whole time through.
Was it EGS that killed it, or ESG? 🤔
Both
Please explain
@@JackSapeon-y9d EGS = Epic Games Store ESG = Environmental, Social and Governance (a policy some companies follow in order to give more equity/visibility in their works/internal teams to previously marginalised groups - be they women, ethnic and/or sexual minorities).
The incel op and the fool agreeing with him's thrust is that perhaps (perhaps doing a lot of the heavy lifting in their innuendo) the game is too "woke" to do well.
You'd have to ask them as to what specifically has got their respective knickers in a twist, but I'd surmise that it's because you play as a black female detective (played by Aisha Tyler of former Ubisoft presser fame) for a portion of the game, that the female characters aren't attractive enough to them for a wank over, or a combo of both.
@@JackSapeon-y9d They race-swapped Saga Anderson, and tried to gaslight everyone, that the correct term? to which Saga has always been Biracial, when she clearly was not. They also tossed in several narrative beats which SBI had written up for Saga and Alan Wake. That should explain everything, I think.
Aside from the obvious not on Steam issues there's also the fact that AW2 completely disappears up it's own a**hole as a game rendering it inaccessible and unnattractive to a vast bulk of gamers. Steam or no Steam. Word of mouth did NOT work for this game as it has done time and time again for Remedy. They NEED word of mouth. Glibly stating "that it probably will recoup costs in time" is painfully lazy. There is NO word of mouth legs to be seen here. Sam Lake needs slapping out of his own ego and head space a little. We don't want to play completely boring, uninteresting protagonists who hand hold the player to the point of hair ripping in a convoluted boggle of a narrative that thinks it's far more clever than it really is. AW1 was pretentious to a degree but it also had immense charm and simple accessibility. AW2 has neither. AW1 is still beloved as a classic, AW2 is already forgotten. FAR more grounding is needed in basic game appeal.
And yet nobody asking why are we playing for the black woman in the game called Alan Wake...
No body asked why we are playing Link in a game called Zelda.
Also anyone with proper logical thinking could tell you why we play as Saga in AW2. And the answer to that is because that is the story the developers wanted to make. But I get it, both the woke and the anti-woke crowds despise creative freedom and both groups want game developers to be put into a box where they have to abide by certain rules each group has. Both the woke and the anti-woke crowd are racists and sexist people with the goal of destroying creative freedom.
I dunno, but I still haven't bought it because I've long since decided that I'm never bothering with Epic.
Epic is terrible but this push by gamers for a digital storefront monopoly in the form of steam is absolutely baffling. Why would you want that? To say nothing of the fact that no one can read enough to realize Epic was the only publisher willing to greenlight an Alan Wake sequel...
@@jarg8 One thing I finally understood not long ago is that half of the people you talk to on the internet are 15 year olds that have no true understanding about how the market (or the world) works. It's fine. I was also an edgy dumdum back when I was 15. It explains 95% of baffling takes we see daily. They don't care about monopolies and their negative consequences because they still don't even understand what a monopoly is besides funny mustache guy with a top hat.
they would sell more copies if it was called "Euro Truck Simulator 2" at 5€ price. I think 1 milion more videos and benchmarks of Alan Wake will do...
Half the sales are benchmarking UA-cam channels. 😂
@@christophermullins7163 the other half are people wanting to benchmark their cpu + gpu ...
A game only handful of people can play isn't turning up profits, what a shock?
Got this for my girl on Christmas watch her start it today looks gorgeous on my Ps1 gray 30th anni. Ps5 pro console! Excited to start the Alan Wake remaster included as well. Brilliant game!
1. Not on Steam.
2. Delayed physical release.
3. SBI consulting tainted the lore, eliminating any artistic integrity that the remedyverse could’ve ever had
🎯💯👍
Absolutely!! lets hope they learned a valuable lesson from this.
@@Cangaca777 They usually learn the lesson after bankruptcy.
Go woke go broke
in what way was alan wake broke?
@@ryannewman75391,8M only in 1 year
There's no point in even having this conversation. It's on epic game store. Once it comes to steam it's going to quadruple it sales on PC
Its a niche game. Steam would increase sales but quadruple them? That's a bit much,no?
Same is Fortnite, they make Billions from it. Why ?
@@ODIOPOWERFottnite is free to play and has as target audience little children - actually it should be banned.
they spent too much making a sequel to a cult classic in a niche genre and then didnt release it on steam or physically... glad it exists but rly not sure how they expected to make all that back within a year
The game overperformed. There's excessive amounts of copium about this and Silent Hill in 2024.
If you know, you know. If you don't eventually you will. It'll be too late then.
They marketed an Alan Wake game as playing some other character, giving TLOU2 vibes.
i liked her near the end of the game. honenstly i thought the game would be dog crap based on what people were saying but i enjoyed it. i felt it was handled better then tlou2.
No, they added a co-protagonist to help introduce the story to new players, have new game mechanics, and show the light vs. dark themes of the story. I'm starting to doubt anybody in the comments knows anything about Alan Wake at all lol
The Last of Us 2 never marketed the game as you even playing anyone other than Ellie. The marketing was genius from the devs perspective, but misleading as hell which is what made so many players mad. At least Alan Wake 2 was honest in it's marketing, showing gameplay with another character before launch and not just a cryptic cutscene with no context..
“some other character” bro did not even play the game
@@juinano they do, when someone buys a Alan wake game and don’t get to play as Alan wake they don’t like it lol
Just say what you really wanted to say bro, you think the game failed because it has a black woman in it and you think gamers are racist, no they are not they just don’t like bad games.
It looked unapproachable to new players. The game looks beautiful and im someone who adores Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space. This game should be right up my alley. The trailers looked like a dream come true. However, i played a trial and found incredibly tedious and lost All interest within an hour.
Its pretty cool. Worth playing longer
@@seangalvin4582 same. Right up my ally. Played 10 hours to really give it a chance. Nothing happens. It's slow. And it's pretentious.
"trial" = Pirated version, huh!?
Same, after walking around in the room for 20 minutes connecting the dots I was done with this game.
Game looked amazing but my gaming laptop really struggling to run it at playable frame rate, yet the game has almost nothing interesting or engaging going on for the first hour, amazing foliage and ray tracing but that will be all you see early in the game walking around contemplating.
@@andreasoberg2021 How did you feel about being called 'another white azzhole'? Do you feel it was just a character having a sook, or the devs / writers letting you know how they REALLY feel?
Sweet Baby Inc. You can pretend they had nothing to do with the games failure all you want but it remains a fact.
The reactionary Boogeyman
@@itcouldbelupus2842majority of people doesn’t like diggers* buddy.
Horror rarely sells. I am a die-hard horror fan in general and the genre rarely gets any love.
Is it on steam?
El oh el.
There’s your answer.
Didn’t need a video for this
In addition to all these problems pointed out in the comments, I point out something simple.
They didn't make Alan Wake 2 to please Alan Wake fans, they made the game to please themselves.
You know what, good for them. There are far too many games already that are trying to please everyone, are market-researched to death until there is no vision, no original thought left.
When Kojima does that it's a good thing apparently.
idk i liked both games. i really went into 2 with low expectations but i came out liking the characters. near the end of the game i wanted it to end so i can move on but the game was fine for me for the most part. the saga character grew on me.
Tbh Alan Wake 2 did work for Alan Wake fans, it just didn't work for the general audience. It's a slow paced story based survival horror game with really wacky stuff.
@@AlexConnor_ it's not a bad thing at all. Games that are made for an audience tend to follow cliches and are often uninventive. Remedy does their own thing and it's why their games are so distinct. You really can't compare any other game to what they do.