Remedy Entertainment has become the latest company to release their financial results for the last few months. According to GamesIndustry.biz, the developer recorded their best ever year despite not releasing a new title during 2020. This is mostly thanks to the continued success of Control.
The developer’s revenue between January 1 and December 31, 2020 increased by 30% last year to reach a total of €41.1 million. Their operating profits through 2020 were more than double that of the previous year, hitting €13.2 million last year compared to €6.5 million in 2019. This was all managed without releasing a single new title, although they did release Control on several new platforms as well as the game’s two expansions.
Originally released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and the Epic Games Store in August 2019, the title was then made available on Steam, Nintendo Switch and Amazon Luna at different times throughout 2020. There were also two story-driven DLC expansions, The Foundation in March and AWE in August, the latter of which was a crossover with one of their other renowned franchises, Alan Wake. These were bundled into an Ultimate Edition package that released in September. The game’s success was also increased by its addition to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service. Towards the end of the year, Remedy announced the game had reached two million units sold. The Ultimate Edition was later released digitally on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, although their February 2021 release will not be included in those financial figures.
The title’s success hasn’t come without controversy, though. While Ultimate Edition owners on PS4 and Xbox One could get a free upgrade to the game on PS5 and XSX/S, those who purchased earlier editions of the game were unable to do so. The issue was then compounded when Deluxe Edition owners were accidentally upgraded to the Ultimate Edition before the mistake was realized and their access was revoked. The Ultimate Edition on PS5/XSX still hasn’t been released as a physical edition either, now due in March after suffering a delay from its initial November release date. Remedy has since gone some way to soothe feeling, at least for PlayStation owners, seeing as Control: Ultimate Edition is currently free for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 players through PlayStation Plus.
Remedy is making plans to move on, though. In the financial report, CEO Tero Virtala confirmed the “development team is gradually shifting to work on a new Remedy game, titled Vanguard“. The free-to-play multiplayer live-service co-op game is in the early stages of development by a smaller internal team, although Virtala did say it built on the “world-building and narrative strengths of Remedy”. They’ve also teamed up with Epic Games on two projects for consoles and PC. The first tile, a AAA game, will not begin full scale prosuction until the spring. The second title, which is smaller in scale, is in full production already. As soon as we know more on any of these titles, we’ll be sure to let you know.
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]
