This week, Remedy Entertainment published their financial report for investors covering the first half of the year. As a publicly-owned company, the studio publishes reports every quarter talking about the progress made by their development teams and financial standings.
If you've checked out our previous break-downs on these reports, you'll probably be very familiar of our setup. In this post, we'll examine the latest internal news and see what's next for the studio. Everything in black is what has been revealed in their previous Q1 2024 report, with new details written in red.
As always, if you're interested in the numbers, I recommend checking out the reports directly to ensure that you're getting the most accurate data. In our round ups, we look primarily at the company's changes, the projects it's working on, and the challenges and achievements it had in the reported time.
As always, the original report was posted on the Remedy Investors website and emailed to subscribers on April 29th. On the same day, Tero Virtala (CEO), Paula Feodoroff (Finance Manager), and Liisa Eloranta (Senior Investor Relations Specialist at Remedy) participated in a livestream to discuss the financial results from the first half of 2024 and answer shareholders' questions. You can watch the full broadcast HERE.
.
Highlights (H1 2024)
Revenue. Revenue increased in Q2 by 16.2% to €10.3 (8.9) million.
Summer Game Fest. At Summer Game Fest, Remedy and Epic Games announced that the Alan Wake 2 Physical Deluxe Edition would be launching on in October, with a special Collector’s Edition, created by Limited Run, scheduled for a December release.
Royalties. Royalties throughout the first half of the year have come from game sales of Control and Alan Wake Remastered.
Reclaiming the Control IP. In February, Remedy announced that it had purchased the full rights to the Control franchise from 505 Games for €17m, with payment spread throughout the next two years. The first three instalments, totalling €3.8m, have already been made, with additional payments to follow in the latter half of 2024 and 2025. The impacted games included Control, "Condor," Control 2, and any future projects in the franchise. At present, the company is looking into self-publishing and potential publishing partners.
Alan Wake 2 Sales. At the start of February, Remedy announced that they had sold 1.3 million units of Alan Wake 2 and had already recouped a "significant part" of the development and marketing expenses, though an update on the number wasn't given in the report, Remedy changed the description to "most" of the development and marketing costs in the H1 report.
Internal Developments
Max Payne 1&2 Remake. As planned, the project is now in full-production mode. The team's current goal is to create an early functional build from start to finish.
Alan Wake 2. The game has already recouped most of its development costs, and saw the launch of the first expansion, Night Springs, over the Summer. Work continues on the second paid expansion, The Lake House, set to launch this October. During Q3, a physical edition of the game will launch worldwide, with Limited Run's Collector's Edition targeted for Q4, both have been highly requested in the gaming community. Remedy is still collecting revenue for Alan Wake Remastered, with interest kindled by the sequel's recent launch.
"Condor". The game, still referred by its codename "Condor", has reached the full production stage. In his letter, Virtala describes the current focus for the team detailing that, "The development team has worked on multiple maps and different mission types, and we have organized a growing amount of internal and limited external playtesting for feature validation and feedback."
Control 2. Previously referred to internally as "Heron". The game has now moved to the production readiness stage as originally planned, and will be scaling up. Internally, the team has also recently crossed an important milestone by delivering a build detailing several key features. The achievement will also be helping business negotiations as Remedy owns full ownership over the IP.
"Kestrel". In mid-November 2023, Remedy revealed a reboot for the project, originally referred to as "Vanguard". After the reboot, the project returned to the concept stage with a publishing plan by Tencent, Remedy described the new project in the press release as being "a premium title, with a cooperative multiplayer element." In May, the developers announced that they had cancelled the project, in agreement from Tencent. The team has now been transferred to other projects within the company.
State of the Studio
Publishing. Remedy has been exploring the potential of self-publishing and related business models, as well as opportunities from potential publishing partners. In the report, the company states that, "We are preparing to take a more significant role in growing the two franchises and especially in the way we commercialize, market, and publish our games." Though not named in that paragraph, they later refer specifically to Control and Alan Wake as they describe that "expanding these franchises will be a key part of our future".
Control IP. In February 2024, Remedy acquired full rights to the Control franchise from 505Games.
Board Members. Markus Mäki, Kaisa Salakka, Sonja Ängeslevä, Henri Österlund and Kai Tavakka were elected to the Board of Directors.
Core Management Changes. Markus Mäki became the Chief Product Officer, and Mika Vehkala was appointed Chief Technology Officer. In April, it was announced that Christopher Schmitz, the Chief Operations Officer, would step down on May 31st, 2024. In the same press release, the studio announced that Mikael Kasurinen had been appointed as a Creative Director, working alongside Sam Lake. Terhi Kauppi left the company in June 2024, her replacement was Santtu Kallionpää who was announced in August 2024, after the reporting time.
Developers. Remedy now consists of 361 developers.
Tencent. Tencent's shares of the company increased above 10% on April 24th 2024.
Recap / 2021-2025 Studio Goals
While the previous few years have been dedicated to strengthening its position as a multi-project developer, the Board has established the key stepping stones that would define success internally going ahead. These goals include:
- To create several successful games, with the goal of at least one major hit.
- To own at least three expanding game brands with "long-term hit potential".
- Strengthening the studio's position to select the ideal distribution for each project (e.g. self-financing, self-publishing, and working with partners).
- Strengthening Remedy's status and value within Europe.
- Maintaining a profitable and growing studio with "well-managed risks".
