Remedy CEO Confirmed Control 2's Budget Is Less Than Alan Wake 2 In New Interview

Following the successful yet long-awaited release of Alan Wake 2, Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment has retreated to work on several projects, which reportedly include two Max Payne remasters and FBC Firebreak. They've also announced a "strategic cooperation agreement" with Annapurna, which sees the Alan Wake and Control IPs making waves in "film, TV, and beyond."

As such, they have been quiet regarding the development of the next gaming projects, including Control 2, which was officially announced in 2022. This project is a joint development and publishing effort with 505 Games, and Game Director Mikael Kasurinen stated that the sequel looks to "create something new" and offer "something different and unexpected" to the player base.

In an interview with Game File's Stephen Totilo, Remedy's CEO Tero Virtala revealed that the development cost for Control 2 is “a bit higher" compared to their previous release, Alan Wake 2. According to a Finnish publication, Helsingin Sanomat (HS), Alan Wake 2 reportedly cost €70m / $79m to develop, making it "one of Finland's most expensive cultural products of all time."

Remedy pivots away from "ballooning" development budgets to make Control 2 less than its last released project is a rare occurrence, but one that should be commended, especially when some of the biggest releases like The Last Of Us Part 2 reportedly cost around €194.8m / $220m, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 costed €265.9m/ $300m and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War costed Treyarch and Raven Software a whopping €619.8m / $700m to make. Virtala added that for Remedy, making a "great" game for €50 million is sufficient enough, as he believes that "with that we can create excellent games” by sticking to their budget, and should the game accumulate two million copies in sales, “we are at break-even per game.”

“That then builds the basis that, if we create an excellent game and it happens to sell four million or five million units, then we are really happy,” Virtala later added. It's important to mention that Remedy will be launching their next project, FBC Firebreak, a three-player co-op FPS, a spin-off game from Control, which launches on 17th June 2025 for consoles and PCs.