Alan Wake 2 would be 'much quicker' than first game, says Remedy

Remedy Entertainment franchise development head Oskari Hakkinen talks about the relative ease of making new Alan Wake games now that the tech is in place, but stops short of promising Alan Wake 2.

7

Remedy Entertainment hasn't announced a full sequel to Alan Wake, but suggests that if one does come it won't take nearly as long as the original, and it will probably stay exclusive to the Xbox 360. The developer says that its experience using the tools to make Alan Wake's American Nightmare has proven they can turn a game around in a shorter time-frame.

"Development wise, five years is developing an engine, the tech, the tools, all of the things you need to do to do a story, a character, other NPC characters and so forth," franchise development head Oskari Hakkinen told Eurogamer. "Once those things are done it's a lot easier. We're seeing it already with American Nightmare, which was only eight months of development, and we completely changed the setting. It's in Arizona now. It's not in the Pacific Northwest.

"The answer is, if we were to do a sequel to Alan Wake, it certainly is a much quicker and easier development cycle than the original Alan Wake, because the engine is created for the game. The overall fiction and the universe is already created."

While Hakkinen stopped short of confirming Alan Wake 2, he did say the franchise is "really close to our hearts" and promised that we'll be seeing "more of Alan Wake in the future." This echoes recent comments from CEO Matias Myllyrinne.

As for multiplatform plans, Hakkinen Alan Wake and American Nightmare will "never" hit PlayStation platforms. "Those are Xbox exclusives." Platforms for the eventual Alan Wake 2 are more fluid, but Remedy sounds committed to Microsoft. "I'm not going to say never, but at the same time I'll say there are no plans. There are no conversations and no plans going on for multi-platform."

Alan Wake's American Nightmare will hit Xbox Live Arcade on February 22 for $15 (1200 MSP), as part of the XBLA House Party promotion.

Editor-In-Chief
From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 14, 2012 11:15 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Alan Wake 2 would be 'much quicker' than first game, says Remedy.

    Remedy Entertainment franchise development head Oskari Hakkinen talks about the relative ease of making new Alan Wake games now that the tech is in place, but stops short of promising Alan Wake 2.

    • reply
      February 14, 2012 11:19 AM

      Somebody please tell Blizzard this (Starcraft 2).

    • reply
      February 14, 2012 11:41 AM

      Way to kill potential sales of the PC version by killing hopes of getting the sequel. I don't know about you but I get kind of annoyed when a game in the series is missing on the platform. For a story driven game like Alan Wake this would be almost a deal breaker for me.

      • reply
        February 14, 2012 12:04 PM

        Umm... how did he kill hopes? Hakkinen was specifically commenting on PS3 versions. (Since he commented on both AW1 and AWAN, if he were really talking about the PC too you wouldn't be getting the port of AW1...)

        • reply
          February 14, 2012 12:06 PM

          This sounds logical I like it \m/

          "Remedy sounds committed to Microsoft" = includes PC

          • reply
            February 14, 2012 12:09 PM

            I guess only time will tell. If the PC isn't even getting the stand alone expansion things aren't looking too good for getting the sequel.

            • reply
              February 14, 2012 1:00 PM

              Microsoft is completely schizophrenic when it comes to the PC and gaming.

              1. We're publishing Alan Wake for the 360 and PC. A DirectX 10 showcase!
              2. We're publishing Alan Wake for the 360.
              3. We're not releasing Gears of War 2 or 3 for the PC.
              4. We're not releasing Fable 2 for the PC.
              5. We're firing the Flight Simulator team and killing off that product line
              6. We're not releasing Fable 3 for the PC or anything else ever again for that matter (never explicitly stated)
              7. We're releasing Fable 3 for the PC. Through Steam even.
              8. We're making our own Steam competitor (GFW Marketplace) with downloadable games.
              9. We're making Flight! which is basically Flight Simulator only it's not.
              10. We're allowing a mod team to use the MechWarrior license to make a free Crysis mod.
              11. We're allowing a different mod team to release MechWarrior 4, a game we own, for free
              12. We're allowing Remedy to put out an Alan Wake port as long as it never sees that dirty dirty PS3

              So you're right, only time will tell. Generally speaking unless you fucking have to have it (Halo), just wait a bit and eventually it comes to the PC anyway

            • reply
              February 14, 2012 1:19 PM

              It is its own isolated story. It has nothing to do with the first game, aside from Mr. Wake himself. Alan Wake 2, or whatever they end up calling it, will continue the main story.

        • reply
          February 15, 2012 3:07 AM

          Except he was talking about the 360 and the articles specifically says 360 exclusive.

    • reply
      February 14, 2012 11:58 AM

      Cool news on possible sequel but WTF to the exclusive Xbox 360 stuff? I do not understand why any shop does exclusive stuff unless they get massive payouts from X company.

      I guess just like they said Alan Wake 1 was exclusive right.

      • reply
        February 14, 2012 12:05 PM

        Since Microsoft is the publisher for both AW1 and AWAN, I would say that yes, Remedy got a massive payout from Microsoft. ;)

      • reply
        February 14, 2012 1:16 PM

        [deleted]

    • reply
      February 14, 2012 7:23 PM

      Alan Wake 2 would be 'much quicker' than first game, says Remedy

      I was thinking "much quicker to beat?"

Hello, Meet Lola