Control has joined Alan Wake in being fully owned by developers Remedy Entertainment, as the studio announced they have acquired the complete rights to their supernatural shooter – including its upcoming sequel and co-op spin-off – from publisher 505 Games.
Control turns five years old this year, having shifted over four million copies in that time – a number that 2023’s Probably Best Game Alan Wake 2 is closing in on quickly as the studio’s fastest-selling game to date, even if it’s still yet to turn a profit.
Even so, Alan Wake 2’s success – and possibly its increasingly knitted connection to Control, including Control’s AWE crossover expansion and Alan Wake 2’s upcoming apparent FBC-involving DLC The Lake House – has seemingly encouraged Remedy to gather the cash needed to take total control of the entire Control series, paying 505 Games €17 million for “all publishing, distribution, marketing and other rights”. That total is apparently equal to “the amount that 505 Games has paid for the development of codename Condor and Control 2 to date including a minor premium”, with Control’s sales said to have made a net revenue of around €100m for Remedy and 505.
The buyout covers the original Control, as well as confirmed sequel Control 2 and Condor, the codename for a four-player co-op spin-off revealed back in 2021.
Any future Control games will also be fully owned by the Finnish developers. It sounds like there might be at least a few of those, too, as Remedy’s announcement notes that “having acquired the full rights to Control, Condor and Control 2, Remedy is now in a position to make the right product and business decisions focusing on long-term franchise growth”. As someone who still believes that Control is Remedy’s best game to date – despite how much I adored Alan Wake 2 – that’s music (likely played by an eardrum-bleeding, teleporting/flesh-eating Object of Power stereo) to my ears.
While the deal means that Control 2 and Condor will immediately fall under Remedy as their new publisher, the OG Control will continue to be published by 505 until the end of 2024 to help with the legal handover. After that, 505 won’t claim any royalties or similar – it’ll all go straight to Remedy’s pockets.
Whether Remedy will look for a new publisher for Control 2 and Condor – and any future Control titles – or put them out themselves remains to be seen.
“This transaction will enable us to negotiate better deals for current and future Control games,” the studio said. “We can now weigh up the options between self-publishing and a new publishing partner for Condor and Control 2. At the same time, we are in a better negotiating position than before as Control is an established brand and Alan Wake 2 has been successful. “
Remedy CEO Tero Virtala reiterated that Control 2 and Condor are both expected to move to their next stages of development in the first half of this year, having “progressed well” in recent months – helped by the Alan Wake 2 team shifting over to the projects, alongside the Max Payne remakes.
This isn’t the first time that Remedy has taken full control of one of their most successful games, having gained the rights to Alan Wake from Microsoft back in 2019. That seems to have worked out pretty well for them since, so here’s hoping that Control and Alan Wake being entirely under the same roof only leads to more of both.
Matt Jarvis
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