Remedy has given fans reassurances about their deal with Annapurna.
This is in response to the breaking news that Annapurna Interactive’s entire 25 person staff has resigned the company. Thomas Puha, Remedy’s communications director, shared this message on Twitter:
“Many of you are reaching out about the news around Annapurna (sorry to see what is going on to all involved) Interactive. Thank you for your care!
Remedy’s deal for Control 2, including Alan Wake and Control AV rights, is with Annapurna Pictures, and we are self-publishing Control 2.”
We won’t fault you if you didn’t know that Remedy would have anything to do with this situation. But two weeks ago, Remedy announced that they had struck a deal with Annapurna.
Under the terms of the deal, Annapurna will co-finance Control 2 with Remedy. Remedy retains full creative and IP control (as you say). They will even be publishing the title themselves. For their part, Annapurna gets the license for both Control and Alan Wake, to spin off into movies, shows, possibly even theatrical productions as Annapurna also does theater.
Annapurna also went officially on record that all their existing video game related projects right now are still in production. So it’s possible that Remedy and Annapurna already have Control and Alan Wake movies or shows already in development, and those are still continuing production.
One would be rightly concerned about Remedy over this, since we learned that their critically acclaimed recent release, Alan Wake 2, has not received the commercial success befitting its quality. Remedy has other projects in the works as well, but these are certainly dangerous times to have games ‘not meet financial expectations’, much less turn out to be flops.
Now, to make things clear, Annapurna Interactive, the video game company, is a division of Annapurna Pictures, the film company. While Puha referred to the deal being with Annapurna Pictures, it is possible that Annapurna Interactive will be restaffed in the future. At that point, Remedy and other partners will be referring to a new Annapurna Interactive, with different people at the helm.
For Remedy’s part, their projects in current development include Project Condor, their first live service endeavor, and the remakes of Max Payne 1 & 2.
We will certainly be on alert if something turns south between Remedy and Annapurna in the future. For now, everything between them seems to be just fine, as Annapurna presumably resolves any issues in their situation.
