The good people at Remedy have started off our 2023 with a not-at-all subtle tease for Alan Wake 2.
On Twitter, the studio’s creative director, Sam Lake, shared this message:
“Happy New Year 2023 ✨! It’s going to be a crazy busy and crazy exciting year 😅😁. Why? Well, if you look at the picture below carefully, you might see a clue 👀. @alanwake @remedygames”
Of course, that message was nothing more but the image of the Alan Wake 2 logo.
Originally announced in The Game Awards 2021, Alan Wake 2’s reveal trailer hinted that the game would be moving away from its action based gameplay and become more of a proper horror game, with atmospheric scares and everything else expected in the genre.
The same Sam Lake who shared this tweet had revealed in an interview that the studio was actually going for a mature rating this time. While that sort of decision was a bigger financial risk when the first Alan Wake was released, the situation has changed considerably today. The two big hits of the PlayStation 5 last year, Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok, both came attached with mature ratings to them. This would be because of the huge demographic shift in the audience for these games, as the same people who may have been teens or younger when the first Alan Wake came out, are now adults who continue to play games, but are now also willing to pay for them, apparently for as much as $ 70.
Sam cited that this decision to go for a mature rating came from their desire to make the game with creative freedom. It seems that this is Remedy reexploring their original plans for a mature Alan Wake game. They may have already told the original story for Alan Wake, but this is an opportunity for a kind of storytelling that came closer to their original vision, if Remedy had not felt the need to censor themselves.
Most recently, in a financial call with investors, Remedy confirmed that production for the game was going well. All the way back in October, Remedy’s CEO Tero Virtala described Alan Wake 2 as being “in the full production stage.” While Remedy’s reticence to actually reveal anything could be a source of concern, Remedy could very well be holding their cards close because they think they have a winner on their hands for this year.
Alan Wake 2 will be released on 2023 on the Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.
Source: Twitter
