Before the weekend, Remedy issued a statement which sees their estimated Q3 2025 key financial figures revised following lower than expected performance.
The statement, published on their investors page reads, “Due to weak sales of FBC: Firebreak, Remedy lowers its long-term sales forecast for the game. Consequently, the company recognizes a non-cash impairment of EUR 14.9 million, representing a majority of the game’s capitalized development costs and allocated purchased publishing and distribution rights. The impairment has no effect on Remedy’s cash position.”
They later go on to add further context, stating that, “FBC: Firebreak was launched on June 17th. In its 2025 half-year financial report, Remedy reported that FBC: Firebreak’s launch-phase consumer sales underperformed. After the launch, the company rapidly developed the game based on player feedback and released multiple updates. On September 29th, Remedy released the first Major Update titled Breakpoint for FBC: Firebreak, which brought significant changes to the game’s core experience. Despite improved player and sales metrics after the update, sales have not reached Remedy’s internal targets.”
While we don't usually post about the financials side, the news has been picked up by media sites including PC Gamer, GamesIndustry.biz, Eurogamer, and more in recent days. I've been playing with the idea of posting about it, but essentially there's an aspect of the report that caught my eye. With the industry in somewhat of a crisis mode, with news of layoffs, mismanagement, closures, and buy outs, bad news is easy to find, and maybe at times sought*. But while the news is not the best, the report ends on a hopeful note.
In earlier financial reports preceding the game's launch, Remedy stated that the game not meeting targets was a possible risk, particularly as their first self-published title and their first multiplayer title. But while the studio's work has collected international rewards and recovered development costs, they've also been a slow burn to get there. Part of that may be the cost of games in the high cost of living, the time commitment required by modern games, or just too much choice. For Alan Wake 2, it was also because the game was so much more expensive to develop, costing at 70 million euros overall.
So, FBC Firebreak requiring more than expected isn't a huge surprise, especially as the feedback early on focused on more content already promised in further updates. Unlike Remedy's other titles, it would grow over time with new material, and become more fleshed out. The major factor about that is time, and fortunately that's something that the studio is willing to give.
In the final sentence, Remedy's CEO, Tero Virtala, mentions that “While we balance future investments to the title, we continue developing and improving the game in line with our updated long-term sales forecast”. In an industry which is currently overly-responsive to the point of being downright cruel at times, it's a nice change of pace to actually see a developer take value in their teams, and show support and confidence in those projects that need a little extra time to find their ground. I know it takes more than that, money is of course a factor, but it's nice to see the studio make the effort to go against the trends in the industry at the moment.
You can read the full statement, HERE. Plus, mark your calendars for October 28th for Remedy's Q3 2025. Each quarter we read through the reports and do notes because we're nerds.
*Kind of like how 2016 was a bad year, so everyone was focused on the next news story that would prove how relentlessly bad it was. I remember hearing about Argentina's spontaneous plague of locusts as though it was the most on-brand thing that year could bring.