At Least They Didn’t Lose Control in 2020
2020 was a hard year, but one strong point was video gaming. Companies like Square Enix and Naughty Dog released instant classics like Final Fantasy VII Remake and The Last of Us: Part 2, drawing in huge profits.
Still, that’s not to say that the only studios that did well released big games: despite not releasing any new games, Remedy managed to score a record financial year, in spite of the fact that they didn’t release a new game. True, they did drop DLC for their hit game Control, but that alone isn’t enough to justify beating out the year where the game actually released.
For those of you who missed Control, the action-adventure puts you in the shoes of Jesse Faden, who manages to track down the mysterious organization known as the Federal Bureau of Control – which studies and contains supernatural items and entities, including her brother Dylan. Her appearance at the Bureau’s headquarters – the Oldest House – coincides with an attack by the otherworldly Hiss.
The game drew rave reviews for… well, pretty much everything, from its tone and sense of humour to the fact that it plays like a video game based on the popular SCP Foundation.
According to their latest financial report, Remedy ended 2020 with 41.1 Million euros in profit, up by 30% from 2019. Part of this is due to the aforementioned DLC but 2020 also saw the game drop on new platforms, like Steam and Xbox Game Pass, as well as the release of Control< Ultimate Edition, alongside the free upgrade to next-gen.
So, what next for Control? Well, it’s hard to imagine Remedy turning their back on the franchise, especially given the level of success they’ve received without even releasing a new game, based entirely on the game’s sales. A new game could well be in the works, especially given how the game ties into Remedy’s earlier game, Alan Wake. could we be seeing a remaster of Alan Wake, as well? Here’s hoping – especially given that the AWE DLC seems to hint at a sequel, and the fact that Alan Wake was originally released as an Xbox Exclusive.