Alan Wake PC recoups dev costs within 48 hours, patches incoming

Gentle reader, be warmed by the happy ending to the oft-sad story of Alan Wake's PC edition. Within only 48 hours of launching, Developer Remedy has more than earned back the money it spent making the jazzed-up port.

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Gentle reader, be warmed by the happy ending to the oft-sad story of Alan Wake's PC edition. It once seemed there'd be no PC release at all, but developer Remedy took matters into its own hands. Since then, the team has revealed that it had more than earned back the money it spent making the jazzed-up port within only 48 hours on sale.

Now Remedy has planned a series of PC patches, bringing fixes and changes including a free camera mode, for those who want to really explore Bright Falls.

You all know the sordid tale: publisher Microsoft had originally sanctioned PC and Xbox 360 versions, but as time wore on, a PC release seemed less and less likely, until MS declared it dead in 2010. Seems there's legs in this 'PC' platform yet.

"We are very happy with the sales and hitting #1 on Steam at launch was nothing short of amazing," Remedy EVP Aki Järvilehto posted on the Alan Wake forums yesterday, after the game launched last week. "We recouped our development and marketing expenses during the first 48 hours. And yes, we're certainly very excited about PC."

Remedy also had to get the PC publishing rights off Microsoft, which presumably cost a penny or two, but it's all jolly good news.

The first planned patch is expected to launch this week, Remedy CTO Markus Maki explained in a forum post, with a second patch next week and another some time after that. They'll mostly bring fixes, but a few new features too, so have a gander at the planned notes.

From The Chatty
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    February 21, 2012 1:30 PM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Alan Wake PC recoups dev costs within 48 hours, patches incoming.

    Gentle reader, be warmed by the happy ending to the oft-sad story of Alan Wake's PC edition. Within only 48 hours of launching, Developer Remedy has more than earned back the money it spent making the jazzed-up port.

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      February 21, 2012 1:39 PM

      [deleted]

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      February 21, 2012 1:42 PM

      Yea, well done on their part.

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      February 21, 2012 2:06 PM

      sweet

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      February 21, 2012 2:11 PM

      Nice! PC Ports - they are worth doing, and worth doing a good job on! Take note, industry! Bring on Red Dead Redemption!

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        February 21, 2012 4:02 PM

        Well also it's worth noting that they, I think, didn't spend a whole lot of money promoting this thing and so it was probably not that difficult to recoup their investment, especially since my guess is that a decent amount of the development life of this game was spent working on a parallel PC version until MS pulled the plug on that.

        Still, a 48-hour turnaround is pretty quick and hopefully it encourages developers and publishers to be even more ambitious in the future.

        I got shat on in a previous thread for saying thus but Remedy making this port Steamworks, not going GFWL, enhanced graphics, including all the DLC, and only priced $30 pretty much hit all the buttons for PC gamer types and it's nice to see they're being rewarded for it.

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      February 21, 2012 2:32 PM

      Fuck remedy.

      I only bought the damned game on xbox 360 because they said there would be no PC port :P

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        February 21, 2012 2:35 PM

        [deleted]

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        February 21, 2012 3:37 PM

        Serves you right, traitor.

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        February 21, 2012 3:39 PM

        If you want to blame someone for that, blame Microsoft Game Studios. And then thank Microsoft Game Studios for not preventing Remedy from being able to independently release a PC version without publishing through Microsoft.

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          February 21, 2012 3:56 PM

          Also I don't think Remedy ever explicitly stated that there would be no PC port. They said that they wanted to do one but it was up to Microsoft to fund/allow that. They never flat out said no.

          As someone who is still holding out for RDR on the PC, all I can say is you have to be patient and if a game never comes to the PC, so be it.

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            February 21, 2012 10:00 PM

            But they DID say it was Vista/DX10 only. Then Xbox 360 only. Now it's on XP/DX9. They lie a lot. SERVICE PACK 2, yet!

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              February 22, 2012 4:54 AM

              The Vista thing was probably a Microsoft imposition, from that era where Microsoft wanted to make all their games Vista exclusive. For example, Halo 2 and Shadowrun were Vista exclusive even though they were DX9.

              In all likelihood, Alan Wake was always DX9 and people just made the assumption that Vista exclusive meant DX10 as well.

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                February 22, 2012 4:59 AM

                It might've been a "DX10 Showcase" title at one point, which was a Games for Windows marketing initiative. The PC port of Halo 2 took the same stance... and then was back-ported to Windows XP.

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        February 21, 2012 4:09 PM

        *fart*

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        February 22, 2012 4:04 AM

        oh kwderpley.

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        February 22, 2012 8:20 AM

        lol owned.

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      February 21, 2012 2:38 PM

      But what is with the couch ... and the piracy and the dieing PC gaming .. ZOMG all excuses have failed!

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      February 21, 2012 3:18 PM

      Thank you based Remedy

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      February 21, 2012 3:51 PM

      its a good port too, not a shitty cash-in. good for them, I hope its successful enough that it earns a follow up with American Nightmare too!

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      February 21, 2012 4:08 PM

      Glad to hear it was a success for them. Hopefully they can keep it up going forward.

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      February 21, 2012 4:18 PM

      AW's American Nightmare on XBL Arcade comes out tomorrow (Feb 22) and I am curious to see how well this does.

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      February 21, 2012 4:20 PM

      They could've recouped everything in the first 5 seconds if it wasn't for piracy.

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        February 21, 2012 8:00 PM

        Too right!

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        February 22, 2012 3:09 AM

        Or they could be still trying to recoup it if they did add some kind of intrusive DRM like the one Ubisoft uses.

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      February 21, 2012 9:49 PM

      They can thank themselves for making the decision to actually sell it at reasonable price, not the $80-$90 ripoff like most new games.

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      February 22, 2012 4:12 AM

      How good is this game? I've never really been into Resident Evil/Silent Hill type games just because they seemed to have terrible controls or bad camera angles.

      Is the story going to keep me playing?

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        February 23, 2012 8:12 PM

        yes it is very good. It's a little bit like max payne, except its more horror / thriller kind of style, instead of noire style. The graphics are beautiful.

        The story will keep you playing, it is very interesting

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        February 27, 2012 3:28 PM

        Horrible controls. Just horrible. They did NOTHING to enhance this for mouse and keyboard.

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          February 27, 2012 3:31 PM

          It's almost as if they didn't give a shit (shocking, I know)...

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      February 22, 2012 5:33 AM

      But, PC gaming is...dead?

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      February 22, 2012 2:16 PM

      I'll buy this when it's $10 on Steam.

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