Remedy reports 22% revenue drop in 2023, says budget of Max Payne 1&2 Remake on par with Alan Wake 2
Remedy Entertainment has released its report for the full 2023. The company recorded significant declines in both revenue and profitability, but remains confident in its future games currently in development.
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Financial highlights (FY23)
- According to its financial statement, Remedy reached €33.9 million in revenue in 2023, down 22.2% year-over-year.
- The main sources of revenue were development fees from Max Payne 1&2 Remake, Alan Wake 2, as well as Project Vanguard (renamed Kestrel).
- The company recorded an operating loss of €28.6 million, compared to a loss of €563k in 2022.
- According to CEO Tero Virtala, the company’s full-year financial performance was impacted by”significantly increased investments in our own game projects, and the impairment charge related to codename Vanguard.”
- Capitalization of Vanguard-related development costs also had a negative impact on the studio’s profitability in the amount of €7.2 million.
- Remedy expects its revenue and profitability to improve in 2024. However, the results depend “on the choice between self-publishing and/or choosing a new publishing partner for the games in the Control franchise .”
Games in development and future plans
Following the release of Alan Wake 2, Remedy currently has four games in development, three of which are based on brands owned by the studio and one (Max Payne) owned by Take-Two:
- Control 2 — remains in the proof-of-concept stage, and the team worked primarily on world-building and combat in Q4;
- Codename Condor (4-player co-op spin-off to Control) — remains in the production readiness stage, with the team focused on combat and game mechanics (both Condor and Control 2 “have proven fun and engaging game play”);
- Codename Vanguard (F2P multiplayer game) — rebooted in November 2023 and returned to a concept stage under the new name, Kestrel (“Despite the promising progress during the first half of the year, we decided with Tencent that the potential was not there,” Virtala said);
- Max Payne 1&2 remake — remains in the production readiness stage, and the team made “considerable progress” in 2023.
Note: According to Remedy’s own definition, the concept phase is about prototyping (20-30 devs), the proof-of-concept stage is about determining how the game will be developed and creating a playable demo (30-50 devs), and the production readiness stage is about defining the needed tools, establishing the team, and finalizing the production plan (50-70 devs).
“With Alan Wake and Control we now have two established franchises, and our ambition is to grow them into franchises that have high brand recognition, steadily growing user base, more regular cadence of sequels and an ability to generate revenues and profits at a high level,” Virtala said.
He described Max Payne 1&2 Remake as a “major new game with great potential,” saying that it will have a “similar development budget as Alan Wake 2.”
Remedy hasn’t disclosed how the budget for AW2, but Finnish analysts estimated the total at €70 million, with €50 million of that being development costs. So Max Payne 1&2 Remake might be in the same tier.
Alan Wake 2 sold 1.3 million copies in more than three months after its launch, becoming the fastest-selling game in the history of Remedy. It was fully funded by Epic Games, and the developer will be entitled to 50% of net revenue after the Fortnite maker fully recoups its investment.
Max Payne 1&2 Remake is financed according to a similar scheme, but the game’s development is fully funded by Rockstar Games. Other projects in development are co-financed by Remedy and their partners.
