Remedy CEO: Alan Wake and Control 'Should Have Sold More' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 26 May 2026 / 1,906 Views
New Remedy Entertainment CEO Jean-Charles Gaudechon in an interview with The Game Business stated Alan Wake and Control "should have sold more" and that is something they "need to fix" before releasing more games.
"We need to think more about how we are approaching our IPs as a franchise," said Gaudechon. "How do we grow the community?
"[Our deal with] Annapurna goes into making our games, our franchises shine further and reach an audience that doesn’t exist today. It’s a pity, I think Alan Wake should have sold more. Control should have sold more. To me, that’s one of the first things we need to fix, even before trying to make more games to a certain extent. First of all, maximize the potential of the ones we have, because they’re incredible. And cross-media is going to help us do that."
Gaudechon wants Remedy to double down on the games it already develops.
"Remedy is already one of the biggest game authors, with very strong signature products," he said. "Now after seeing it from the inside, there’s so much more we can give in terms of super strong authored, creative, crazy stories and gameplay. Honestly, we haven’t achieved half of the potential in terms of the products that we make."
He added, "But as franchises Control, Alan Wake, etcetera, could give a lot more. There’s a vision on thinking bigger for some of these IPs, which need to find its audience much, much further than the current audience. It’s super exciting."
Remedy's next game, Control Resonant, is set to launch later this year for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, and Epic Games Store.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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I'll never understand the hate AW2 got
Outside of the overuse of jump scares during a 20 min part of the game... I had no issues
High quality horror, gameplay, puzzles, gorgeous environments... all on a 50M dollar budget is crazy af
I was hesitant to buy the game because of how hit and miss it was with the public but I really enjoyed it.
Releasing Alan Wake 2 on Steam would've helped it sell more copies.
It definitely would, but it was 100% funded by Epic(they covered the entire budget, which is basically an insane deal). Without Epic the game just wouldn't have got funded. Remember that MS had publishing rights for the game for a decade and didn't Greenlight it.
Yes, but it wouldn't have got made without Epic. Remedy had all the time in the world to find funding for the game, but they couldn't until they got Epic to fund it. Better Alan Wake 2 on Epic only than no Alan Wake 2 at all.
Their partnership with Epic meant losing a lot of Alan Wake 2 sales from Steam users. They knew that would happen, but decided that Epic's funding of the game was the best course of action. Sorry pal, you can't have both things.
As for Control. Well, it was a good game, but not attractive enough to gather a bigger audience. Their creative vision is what makes them stand out from the rest but, again, that comes with pros and cons.
Considering how long it took to find funding for Alan Wake 2, I'm really doubtful it would have ever got funding without Epic. I think it was basically Epic or nothing.
Control really needed better art direction, if you ask me. I steered away from the game for years mainly due to its boring concrete environments and visually boring main character, and I'm sure I can't be the only one. Control: Resonant seems to be improving on this front, but it's still not great.
It's true that without Epic's funding there may not have been an Alan Wake 2. But Remedy knew that this move would limit their sales on PC, and becaus of that, the new CEO saying that it shoudl have sold more is ridiculous. They knew where they were geting into, don't complain about it now.
As for Control, I don't know about the art direction. To me the bigest problem of the game is that it's made by Remedy, the studio that left Alan Wake with an open ending hoping for a sequel that took a decade to arrive, that left Quantum Break with an open ending and a story we'll never get to see the end, and then they launched Control... agai nwith an open ending.
Yeah, hard pass, thanks.
Disagree with Alan Wake. That sort of niche gameplay is going to turn a lot of people off. Control though I agree with.
yeah, Alan Wake is for a specific public
Amazing games, wish theyd sell more too, so we can get more sequeks
I enjoyed Alan wake 2. Control no so much. Gave it multiple chances but couldnt move forward.
Agreed, sadly they aren't online games where people (kids) play with their mates.
