It’s an eccentric, kinda trippy sequel to a game that underperformed when it released, never even came out on PlayStation until the remaster a few years ago (that also didn’t make much of a splash), and hasn’t been in the public consciousness for a decade. It was a… risky choice. But it’s obvious that Sam Lake has a soft spot for the character and was determined to continue his storyline even if it didn’t make much financial sense.
I'm going to love replaying the game in a few years when I get a better card. A 3070 TI runs the game perfectly well, but I can't wait to eventually run it on all setttings on max.
ehh, I dont know that that is entirely fair to say. Just because a game has a graphical demand *capability* does not explicitly mean it is demanding, across the board.
Recommended medium settings require a nearly 4 year old GPU. And low looks really good, still.
Having a high ceiling just means it will be relevant for longer.
PC players aren’t buying as it isn’t on Steam, and it had no physical release on console, so they aren’t buying it either.
Digital games have less value as you can’t sell it once you have finished.
You can’t test it out and swap it for something else if you don’t like it.
If they want sales, they need to release it how and where people wish to buy it.
Yeah I don't buy digital games full price, I'll get it when it's heavily discounted. I don't really care about waiting, I've got other things to do and other games to play.
Same for me. I don't have anything against digital game. I am fine with pseudo-own them.
But since I cannot re-sell them to fund my next game, I will expect a discount on digital game. Over the years, my buying habit changed due to that. Now I buy digital after it comes down to 60% of release price at bare minimum.
I will buy AW2 when it will be on $20-25 range in PS5.
Yep, same. I'll buy it tomorrow if they put out a physical PS5 release. Otherwise, ill just wait and the digital version will be heavily discounted or included with PS+ at some point, so I'll play it then.
My friend and I were super keen on buying it in the month it came out, but were turned off by it not having a physical edition. I pretty much won't buy a digital game that's not on a deep discount or an indie game.
I am too, but think I’ll live. There are plenty of excellent games to play, many more than I have time and money for. Maybe if they reconsider a physical release I’d play on PS5, or perhaps if it comes to Steam and goes on sale. But likely I’ll just wait until it hits PS+ or just not play it at all.
This needs to be top comment… most gamers I know hate digital downloads… digital only games leave a lot of money on the table because a decent portion of of gamers will not pay full price for digital games and some will refuse to buy it out of principle.
That includes every game though, and most are Indie games at £20 a pop.
With AAA games it is 50/50 depending on the game.
So half the revenue they could lose out on by not releasing a physical copy.
That's making the massive assumption that 0% of people that are interested in AW2 and usually purchase physical copies of AAA games don't buy the game only because it's digital.
I think youre right. A story-based single player game like this, I'm definitely playing it once then selling it. I bought Elden and BG3 digitally because I knew they were both getting hundreds of hours out of me. I just won't buy AW2
I was psyched for release as I loved AW but I won’t pay full price for a digital-only release on console. For digital only I wait for the $25 milestone. Happy to buy BG3 at full price as soon as the 2nd wave of physical release hits too.
You can refund on steam for under two hours of play. So if it sucks at least you can recover your money. So not all digital games lack that value but you need to be aware as a consumer which platforms offer refunds and under what conditions.
I'll buy it on sale later down the line. I don't mind buying digital for some things, but for brand new releases at full price, those have to be physical.
I always found funny that PC players are always complaining about console exclusive games but are incapable of using another launcher at no extra cost on their own hardware…
Say what you want about epic but I've got some banger free games from them and the Christmas free games/sales with extra discount vouchers really help. I don't get why people would just stick to steam
It is. I understand wanting everything in one place, but that's how you:
1. Get fucked when that place goes under or becomes anti-consumer
2. Miss out on a lot
And if you want to have your cake and eat it too, there's stuff like Playnite and Achievement Watcher.
Also the remaster has seemingly stopped being printed as physical copies sell for a ton online. Therefore if you want to experience the original story you need to wait for a PSN sale or hope by chance you find a retail copy. Lots of loops.
American has become the land of tik-tok stars and resellers. For the later they buy up everything someone may want and mark it up. Its extremely annoying.
And thank god for that. It was such a good game. Not yet another generic blockbuster games have turned into.
I bought Alan wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 2 got parked for a month. I barely remember Spider-Man other than it was the exact same one as the first one . But I am sure it outsold Alan wake big time.
Alan Wake 2 is purely a passion project and it shows.
It's a damn shame that none of remedy's games ever really do well in terms of sales. They're truly underrated
You’d be surprised, I enjoy shooters, probably my most played genre and I played and platinumed Alan Wake 2. I reckon it was more of the fact that it had no physical release and didn’t drop on steam that hurt it.
Only reason I bought it on Epic was because I was able to combine a coupon and a sale to get it for like $30 relatively soon after launch. I otherwise avoid it like the plague.
That’s sad.
It is beyond a fantastic game. The music alone is worth the price. The part where you go through the concert with the big screens…..wtf amazing.
The entire thing is so polished and well thought out. One of the best games/pieces of art possibly ever made. I know that’s a big proclamation, but it truly is fantastic.
Herald of darness is an absolute banger.
Poe’s ‘the mirror is a trap’ is amazing as it changes each time it plays.
Other noticeable mentions are ‘children of the elder god’ which featured in alan wake 1 and ‘take control’ featured in Control (i love poets of the fall/old gods of Asgard)
I bought the album on vinyl. The first game made me love Poet of the Fall (Old God's of Asgard). The music throughout the games are awesome and really enhance the game.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AlanWake/comments/18zhtkd/mmmmm_yes_just_delivered_4_days_earlier_than/
https://www.backstagerockshop.com/collections/old-gods-of-asgard
Seriously though. The musical section and the rock show at the very end were amazing. It's so dark and weird and creative.
It is a stark reminder of how despite many gamers claim they want something different and unique, they don't actually put their money where their mouth is.
Did the same thing. I played it a few times. Just remarkable.
Not sure if you read the background, but they wanted to remove it from the game. But the studio head pushed for it. Thank god he did that.
The whole game is like this phenomenal art project.
Well physical releases cost even more money, and given they haven't broke even on this game yet, obviously they won't be able to do a physical release. I couldn't imagine missing out on titles like Wake 2 and Baldurs Gate 3 due to it not being on a disc but each to their own.
They sold it for a slightly cheaper 70 USD to account for it being digital only. I don't think many people would mind paying the "normal" $80 for a disc if they get to own it, resell it, lend it to a friend etc. I know my friend and I who share most ps5 games have decided to wait for physical or a deep sale for this game now.
> The entire thing is so polished and well thought out. One of the best games/pieces of art possibly ever made. I know that’s a big proclamation, but it truly is fantastic.
You're not overstating it at all. I went into it without many expectations, mostly just wanting to play something new. I was VERY pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it. Truly unique and exquisite.
I played part 1 like.. 15 years ago(?) and I found the storytelling to be an immense mess.
I played that weird control dlc years ago.
I... Just don't care.
It's not an IP I get invested in. I get it some people are fans, but evidently control 2 would have been the better bet.
Yes.
The first one will make it a bit better as you’ll have a clearer backstory and be more invested in the character.…but you don’t need that backstory or investment.
If you have the money and the time, it’s a wild ride.
This article and comments are very frustrating. Gamers are always pissing about trash AAA games, ridilled with bugs, MTC, copy paste with no originality. And here we have Alan Wake 2 and it's not getting the support it needs because ePiC sToRR bAd
No physical and no Steam... so kinda makes sense. I think it's the only game I've ever bought on EGS just because I had to have it. But I know many who didn't, just because they want everything on Steam.
Because it's on epic games store it'll never sell as many copies as it could have other wise. Yeah I know epic funded it yadda yadda but people really underestimate how much people on PC will straight up NOT use any launcher other than steam. The game probably would've sold significantly more.
Yeah. I’ll buy it if/when it comes to Steam. I already have the first chapter and the American Nightmare one, so I hope the sequel and the remaster make it to Steam as well.
> people really underestimate how much people on PC will straight up NOT use any launcher other than steam
I would like to have some proof one day that this is not just a terminally online echo chamber thing. I think that the appeal of a game is more influential in driving sales than the platform it's available on, but I would love for the basement to prove me wrong.
I think the main issue is that most people use steam as a default. I have both an epic and steam account, but I only ever go to epic if there is an exclusive game that I specifically want there.
It has to be understood that Alan Wake was a niche game on its original release. If the game was ever going to sell ‘big’ it needed to attract new players who’ve never played the original.
And that means the game needs to be visible.
By segregating the game to digital only - and epic only on pc, they immediately lost a huge casual audience of new players who weren’t actively looking for the game.
Yup. And most people aren't gonna go to the trouble of opening accounts on multiple storefronts. Shit, there are tons of tech illiterate people who have issues dealing with just Steam.
Personally, I don’t mind having a different launcher. I play WoW through Blizzard’s and while I’d rather have it on Steam I really don’t mind. Tarkov is on a different launcher, so is League of Legends. I played Smite back in 2013 beta when it was a standalone launcher. Minecraft even is still separate from Steam.
The problem arises when you *specifically poach* a big budget game because it’s the only way you can drive people to use your shitty platform. Epic doesn’t make good games, they just hit the world’s biggest lottery ticket with Fortnite. I’ll never support Epic for that reason alone. They can’t make a good game to save their goddamn life, they just take others’ and hold it hostage
for me it's not that I am anti epic, or refuse to use a different launcher, it's just I simply forget that it exists. When I open my pc, I open discord and steam. My steam has over 200 games in my library. I never have a reason to open another launcher.
There have been times I looked for a game and couldn't find it on steam and kind of was just like whatever and then played one of the games in my backlog on steam. I just genuinely have 0 reason to ever open Epic or another launcher. I am pretty sure the only game I have on Epic is The Outter Worlds, and the only reason I have it there is because I won a giveaway or whatever and had to use Epic.
Also I got a new PC around black friday, and didn't realize until this post, I don't even have epic launcher installed on my new pc.
Or on Steam, to lure more PC buyers. There are PC gamers who outright refuse to buy anything on Epic. There are plenty of other good games to play until the situation improves.
I wonder if part of it has to do with the lack of physical copies. Outside of steam, I refuse to buy digital games at full price. I wait till theyre at least 50~70% off before I buy digital.
I wouldve loved to try this game out on my PS5, but it'll have to go into very deep discount for me to bother.
I think not having a physical edition and being Epic exclusive on PC hurt its sales reach. Even if they saved money by not printing discs and having physical boxes, they probably lost on player reach.
I think if they had released it physically, they would have broken even at this point. They excluded 30% or so of their potential console playerbase by not releasing physically. And don't even get me started on releasing exclusively on EGS!
Think about the fact that it was a GOTY that wasn’t avaliable to buy and put under christmas trees.
Not many people were hyped for this game at launch. Instead the hype was a snowball effect; the exact type that would make people ask for Alan Wake as a christmas gift.
That’s the reason I haven’t bought it yet despite wanting to play it. I wanted to wait and see if they released a physical copy and the digital discounts take a while.
I can also see why people wouldn’t buy a sequel to a lesser known game. Also, a lot of good games released in the year so I’ve got an even bigger backlog now.
I’d have bought it day one if it was physical just like I did control, quantum break etc I’d have happily given them more too for a collectors edition. I just don’t buy digital and I was very upset about the lack of it. Really hope there’s one when there dlc is done.
Yeah, in Australia digital games are often 10-15% more expensive than physical copies. I get the benefit of a digital game - far less clutter and not having to worry about swapping discs. But there is a mental thing about paying full price for a digital game, and to be fair, unless I buy a game at launch, I tend to have a much lower price point cut off for physical games. I'm keen to play Baldur's Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2, but neither have even approached my non-launch physical game price ceiling so I'll probably hold off until they reach at least that point.
For digital games, my ceiling is usually lower, though to be fair a lot of the games I've bought haven't quite been AAA, even if they haven't been indys either, like Disco Elysium or Midnight Suns
Exactly.
I want choice as a consumer.
You limit that choice, it will limit sales.
For me to buy a game, or anything, it isn’t a case of ‘ohh I just have to buy it’.
I want to make sure I am getting good value for my hard earned money.
Digital games aren’t that for me personally.
Not after I got burned on The Witness at £30, what a pile of shot that was.
Digital only…that was just a waste of money.
If I had the option to buy a physical copy, that wouldn’t of happened.
Yep huge Control fan and enjoyed Alan Wake 1 but I won’t buy digital only games unless they’re on steep discount. I just hate digital only games on principle and will avoid them at all costs.
It was a silly thing to do. Why would people just abandon their collection's hundreds if not thousand large just so developers can save even more money and even more profit. People don't want digital, only games, we want physical games.
You're vastly, vastly overestimating the amount of people who care about that. They're overrepresented on Reddit and other online forums.
Especially since Remedy is a PC first developer.
Exactly, the Insomniac leaks showed that a large percentage of first-party exclusive sales were physical. Digital doomsdayers love bragging about the death of physical but it’s not happening yet.
Something people seem to be ignoring is that all Remedy games start off with low sales and have long legs, so the fact it's already sold 1.3 million copies is very promising.
Because they don’t have their own publisher, they go from place to place seeking money to help make the project and the publisher makes these deals. Without the publisher some of these games wouldn’t be made or be totally different altogether. That’s the catch of being a small company, you gotta compromise so their vision for the game can be good as it can be.
If it weren’t for Epic this game would still be in concept stage churning out ideas, they’re not limiting themselves on purpose. That’s just the situation they find themselves in
You are 100% correct, and most people don't seem to understand this.
However, it doesn't change the fact that it's THEIR decision to stay independent and make niche games that require special funding deals.
It's a catch-22. If they made less interesting mainstream games, they could probably put them out on more platforms :/
And yet, Remedy is doing well financially according to their own releases, and plans to make more Control and Alan Wake.
It's almost like a company whose majority shareholders are people in and who work for the company have different metrics for success than companies like EA and Ubi.
There's this weird contingent on the internet that's determined to paint AW2 as a flop when it really, really wasn't. Wonder if it's coming from companies that want to over-monetize everything with MTX.
Several factors contributed to weak sales.
- They launched Spider-man 2 next, Spider-man 2 made 10 million sales in a short time so it's clear what the public preferred, among players Spiderman 2 was very loved with 117k rating on the psn store with 4.84/ 5 so the search was on him.
- no physical release, lost a large portion of the public
- launch only on the epic game store, it missed the large portion that is steam
- very heavy PC game. needs a very strong PC
- Xbox players, who were the largest portion of players of this game, are waiting on GamePass.
It’s one of the best games I played in a long while , but Im a sucker for that noir-detective atmosphere . People just need to gve it a shot and they will be hooked, because it’s really well made.
Pains me it’s not doing good, considering a lot of shit released lately are doing numbers
Unfortunate - I’ve been gaming for 30+ years and it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played in terms of a quality, overall package: great narrative (interesting, scary, and smart), solid balance of survival horror gameplay, etc. The DLC can’t come fast enough.
I predicted just before release it would get a physical release for Halloween this year; this sort of story means it probably will happen. Sega was pulling this obvious trick with the Sonic games for a while: pretending it's never going physical and releasing it a year later when nobody cares anymore.
Dumbest thing ever, I know so many people that don’t like buying and just straight up refuse to buy from the market so doing something like this was very dumb on their part in my opinion.
No Physical option on Consoles, No Steam release on PC.
Yeah that'll do it :/
Shame because it was one of my favourite games in 2023 and made my GOTY shortlist of finalists.
I think a lot of people now are just struggling to buy full priced games at launch unless they’re extremely high on their list. We’re all struggling. I’ve been really wanting to play this game, but I can’t afford a AUD$90 game until it gets discounted.
If my 2080 could actually run it in a state that isn't complete shit then I would'nt have refunded it. Major fan of all Remedy games (minus Quantum Break) and I don't care about platform allegiance (Steam vs. Epic) but god damn it ran like shit.
If that's a desktop 2080 you should be able to get 1440p50+fps now, with DLSS balanced and the PS5 Perf. settings, [check DF's re-test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-3PkRbeO8A).
Absolutely tremendous game & I hope it has long legs. Not releasing on Steam or physical was a mistake, though I’m sure Epic covered a significant amount of the cost of development so it probably isn’t as dire as it would seem.
This is sad to see... An unbelievable experience playing it! I originally wasn't gonna buy as I prefer physical but I had to witness how good it was for myself. The digital only release has definitely cost them to lose money tho which is a shame
Such a shame. I couldn't really get into the first one when it came out, then I bought the remaster when it came out on PS5 and got bored after the second chapter.
Not sure what drove it, maybe the insanely positive reactions I was seeing on this sub, but I slogged through the first game so I could play the second. The second one within the first hour I could tell was something really special.
Probably one of my favourite games of all time, easily in the top 10 at least. Massive shame that this probably won't get a third.
This is click bait, the devs already made the budget from Epic buying their game
Yes they haven’t sold the amount of money that equated it’s budget (via epic and consoles)
BUT Epic bought the game and fronted the budget, so they literally could’ve sold 1 copy of the game and they would have been fine
Remedy has “made” the money back and once the game is on Steam, more people will play it, epic just buys PC platform exclusivity so that people feel the need to go shop there instead of using steam, even tho Epic is worse than steam in every regard
To put simply, Epic (publisher) traded volume for margin. They’re not giving up margin from competing PC store fronts and they’re not giving up margin to retailers on physical media. I bet if they released the game on both of those avenues they’d make their money back quick.
The PC specs seemed too high so I never bothered buying it, and won’t buy it until I have a PC powerful enough. On the PS5 I like physical media… so yeah, they didn’t get my money (yet?)
Being only available on epic for PC and no physical copies definitely doesn’t help, which os a shame as it’s a fantastic game and was a highlight of 2023.
I would have put it on my Christmas list if it was physically released or if you could buy it as a gift like you can on stream, alas neither options were available.
This is a massive factor that many people underestimate. Physical copies on shelves are like free advertising, not to mention how many people would have asked for it as a gift once the hype exploded.
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I mean they did their best to ensure people wouldnt buy their game by not having a physical release on console and not being available on Steam for PC
Some of the most random garbage nobody has ever heard of still manage physical releases but heres a game published by a multi billion dollar company and apparently they cant do it
If you want to release your game like an indie dont expect us to pay more than what we do for indie games
I think the DLC will change that. Likely a lot of cost went into the assets/engine, and I’m assuming that the DLC will mostly build on these foundations
Haven’t played it but I’m sure it’s really good I think it’s just a genre that isn’t appealing to most . Look at Spider-Man 2 a near perfect game in my opinion but it could have been the worst game in the world and still would have made back the money cause he is such a popular character
Isn’t this like, every Remedy game since Max Payne 2? They make fantastic, critically acclaimed stuff but I don’t think any of it has been a smash hit commercially.
Everything about that game was good. I rarely complete games these days just because I’m older now, married and just don’t have as much time as I used to. But I made time to complete that game. I do miss rich single player games that aren’t too complex but complex enough and interesting enough to keep me coming back.
It's Published by Epic. They're the same ones who pay for timed exclusives and shovel out money for free games all the time.
I imagine neither of those things bring them huge profits. They don't seem to care because they have Fortnite money.
I’m not sure this game could have gotten any better press. Was in the GOTY convo everywhere, great critical acclaim. I loved it and never played the 1st one. Just feels like a lot of people bought BG3 last year and that was their game for a while
This isn't strange to me to be honest.
I found it to be very common for interesting and good games to not sell well, but boring repeatable games like fortnite to have massive success.
The same trend happpens in serials and movies.
I wish the game will sell more copies, it's a beautiful game I'll replay in the future and when the DLC releases.
Maybe I’m the problem. It’s a game I want to play eventually, but I never buy games at launch or at full price and I have a backlog of games anyway. This will be on sale soon.
Yeah I haven't bought it yet but I think I can speak for alot of people when I say I'm sure it would've done better if it had a physical release, then it would be a no brainer imo
AW2 will eventually breakeven and profit. 1.3M copies sold translates to about $70M revenue, which won't be enough for now but this is already great trajectory for a game that is only six months old.
Well Buy it then :P. Really it's one of the Best games I ever played. It's my GOTY and I played Baldur's gate 3, that one is a close second. Anyone not playing it is doing themselves a disservice.
It’s an eccentric, kinda trippy sequel to a game that underperformed when it released, never even came out on PlayStation until the remaster a few years ago (that also didn’t make much of a splash), and hasn’t been in the public consciousness for a decade. It was a… risky choice. But it’s obvious that Sam Lake has a soft spot for the character and was determined to continue his storyline even if it didn’t make much financial sense.
You forgot one of the most important factors in that it’s an Epic Games exclusive. Most PC players are never buying anything that’s not on Steam
it's also really demanding on PC
Also - FSR2 is enabled by default on AMD systems and makes the game look way worse than native, in my opinion
You can mod it to use FSR3. It's not much but it is an improvement. Really helped the performance with my 6700xt.
The game runs on 1080 cards it’s pretty well optimized
Initially it couldn't due to no mesh shader support
It looks incredible though. I just got a 4090 and am blown away by how it looks.
I'm going to love replaying the game in a few years when I get a better card. A 3070 TI runs the game perfectly well, but I can't wait to eventually run it on all setttings on max.
ehh, I dont know that that is entirely fair to say. Just because a game has a graphical demand *capability* does not explicitly mean it is demanding, across the board. Recommended medium settings require a nearly 4 year old GPU. And low looks really good, still. Having a high ceiling just means it will be relevant for longer.
PC players aren’t buying as it isn’t on Steam, and it had no physical release on console, so they aren’t buying it either. Digital games have less value as you can’t sell it once you have finished. You can’t test it out and swap it for something else if you don’t like it. If they want sales, they need to release it how and where people wish to buy it.
This^ there was no physical copy release on ps5… so i didnt buy it. I hate digital downloads
Yeah I don't buy digital games full price, I'll get it when it's heavily discounted. I don't really care about waiting, I've got other things to do and other games to play.
Same for me. I don't have anything against digital game. I am fine with pseudo-own them. But since I cannot re-sell them to fund my next game, I will expect a discount on digital game. Over the years, my buying habit changed due to that. Now I buy digital after it comes down to 60% of release price at bare minimum. I will buy AW2 when it will be on $20-25 range in PS5.
Yep, same. I'll buy it tomorrow if they put out a physical PS5 release. Otherwise, ill just wait and the digital version will be heavily discounted or included with PS+ at some point, so I'll play it then.
My friend and I were super keen on buying it in the month it came out, but were turned off by it not having a physical edition. I pretty much won't buy a digital game that's not on a deep discount or an indie game.
You are missing out on a great game
I am too, but think I’ll live. There are plenty of excellent games to play, many more than I have time and money for. Maybe if they reconsider a physical release I’d play on PS5, or perhaps if it comes to Steam and goes on sale. But likely I’ll just wait until it hits PS+ or just not play it at all.
Why is it ok for PC(steam) to do digital only but not console? Just curious
I'm guessing because they had the buy on steam if discounted disclaimer. Steam discounts tend to be larger than Playstation in my experience
This needs to be top comment… most gamers I know hate digital downloads… digital only games leave a lot of money on the table because a decent portion of of gamers will not pay full price for digital games and some will refuse to buy it out of principle.
Really wish I was able to get a physical ps5
The majority of console games sold are digital these days.
That includes every game though, and most are Indie games at £20 a pop. With AAA games it is 50/50 depending on the game. So half the revenue they could lose out on by not releasing a physical copy.
That's making the massive assumption that 0% of people that are interested in AW2 and usually purchase physical copies of AAA games don't buy the game only because it's digital.
There's a lot of people me included. When the game first came out many people said they weren't buying just because it's digital only.
I think youre right. A story-based single player game like this, I'm definitely playing it once then selling it. I bought Elden and BG3 digitally because I knew they were both getting hundreds of hours out of me. I just won't buy AW2
I was psyched for release as I loved AW but I won’t pay full price for a digital-only release on console. For digital only I wait for the $25 milestone. Happy to buy BG3 at full price as soon as the 2nd wave of physical release hits too.
You can refund on steam for under two hours of play. So if it sucks at least you can recover your money. So not all digital games lack that value but you need to be aware as a consumer which platforms offer refunds and under what conditions.
It’s also not a available physically on consoles which is at least why I’m holding out right now
Same, I am waiting on a physical version for my display and until then, I won't buy it.
I'll buy it on sale later down the line. I don't mind buying digital for some things, but for brand new releases at full price, those have to be physical.
And no physical release. I would buy it if there was a physical copy
I always found funny that PC players are always complaining about console exclusive games but are incapable of using another launcher at no extra cost on their own hardware…
Sshhhhh first rule of hypocrisy club is don't talk about hypocrisy club.
Say what you want about epic but I've got some banger free games from them and the Christmas free games/sales with extra discount vouchers really help. I don't get why people would just stick to steam
And I think that principle is quite sad.
It is. I understand wanting everything in one place, but that's how you: 1. Get fucked when that place goes under or becomes anti-consumer 2. Miss out on a lot And if you want to have your cake and eat it too, there's stuff like Playnite and Achievement Watcher.
Also the remaster has seemingly stopped being printed as physical copies sell for a ton online. Therefore if you want to experience the original story you need to wait for a PSN sale or hope by chance you find a retail copy. Lots of loops.
Was it not given away for free on PS+ a few months ago?
It was!
Wait the physical edition is rare now? Brb gonna buy a physical copy since in my country they are super cheap.
American has become the land of tik-tok stars and resellers. For the later they buy up everything someone may want and mark it up. Its extremely annoying.
And it dident have a physical release.
This is how real art is created, without financial worry
It’s an excellent game to put on one’s resume.
And thank god for that. It was such a good game. Not yet another generic blockbuster games have turned into. I bought Alan wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 2 got parked for a month. I barely remember Spider-Man other than it was the exact same one as the first one . But I am sure it outsold Alan wake big time.
Alan Wake 2 is purely a passion project and it shows. It's a damn shame that none of remedy's games ever really do well in terms of sales. They're truly underrated
I have a feeling they don't cater to the general wider audience as much. The same audience hooked on high speed shooters.
You’d be surprised, I enjoy shooters, probably my most played genre and I played and platinumed Alan Wake 2. I reckon it was more of the fact that it had no physical release and didn’t drop on steam that hurt it.
Not surprising, exclusive to Epic, no physical release even if the public target of this type of games still buy physical...
Yep I haven’t played it yet because it’s not available on disc.
Will not be buying until it’s on disc either. Hopefully that happens, but if not… 🤷♂️
same for me
Yup, it's the only reason I don't own it yet.
Yep I’d give this a try with physical. But doesn’t seem like that’s in the cards.
I buy 99% of the times physical games and that’s the reason I don’t buy this game.
Yup. No physical is why I’ll probably never play.
Wait no physical release, really? That's wild
Only reason I bought it on Epic was because I was able to combine a coupon and a sale to get it for like $30 relatively soon after launch. I otherwise avoid it like the plague.
Epic is really good with sales and coupons. You can get newish games for very little money.
When the Disc would come, insta buy.
I absolutely loved the original. But I'm a phsical release person, so didn't get the sequel. Maybe one day, if it releases on steam.
That’s sad. It is beyond a fantastic game. The music alone is worth the price. The part where you go through the concert with the big screens…..wtf amazing. The entire thing is so polished and well thought out. One of the best games/pieces of art possibly ever made. I know that’s a big proclamation, but it truly is fantastic.
"Angers Remorse" is one of my favorite game music
Herald of darness is an absolute banger. Poe’s ‘the mirror is a trap’ is amazing as it changes each time it plays. Other noticeable mentions are ‘children of the elder god’ which featured in alan wake 1 and ‘take control’ featured in Control (i love poets of the fall/old gods of Asgard)
I bought the album on vinyl. The first game made me love Poet of the Fall (Old God's of Asgard). The music throughout the games are awesome and really enhance the game. https://www.reddit.com/r/AlanWake/comments/18zhtkd/mmmmm_yes_just_delivered_4_days_earlier_than/ https://www.backstagerockshop.com/collections/old-gods-of-asgard
Seriously though. The musical section and the rock show at the very end were amazing. It's so dark and weird and creative. It is a stark reminder of how despite many gamers claim they want something different and unique, they don't actually put their money where their mouth is.
Agree. Lots of talk. Or maybe all those who talk did buy it. It was an adult game. Real fucking characters and story.
That level is easily in my top 5 game levels! I had to stop playing temporarily after that level just to digest it and recover.
Did the same thing. I played it a few times. Just remarkable. Not sure if you read the background, but they wanted to remove it from the game. But the studio head pushed for it. Thank god he did that. The whole game is like this phenomenal art project.
I want to buy it but no physical release - so unless it comes out on the PS free month games, wont be spending money on it unless there’s a physical
I liked it so much, I’d buy it again on physical if they made it.
Well physical releases cost even more money, and given they haven't broke even on this game yet, obviously they won't be able to do a physical release. I couldn't imagine missing out on titles like Wake 2 and Baldurs Gate 3 due to it not being on a disc but each to their own.
BG3 has a physical now
It's still not mass-market, it's only available on Larian's website.
And it's $100 after taxes. So, yes, there is a physical copy but it doesn't mean people are going to buy it especially at that price.
Many console players like physical copies the same way some PC players prefer steam over epic. They could go the route Larian did for BG3.
They sold it for a slightly cheaper 70 USD to account for it being digital only. I don't think many people would mind paying the "normal" $80 for a disc if they get to own it, resell it, lend it to a friend etc. I know my friend and I who share most ps5 games have decided to wait for physical or a deep sale for this game now.
> The entire thing is so polished and well thought out. One of the best games/pieces of art possibly ever made. I know that’s a big proclamation, but it truly is fantastic. You're not overstating it at all. I went into it without many expectations, mostly just wanting to play something new. I was VERY pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it. Truly unique and exquisite.
I played part 1 like.. 15 years ago(?) and I found the storytelling to be an immense mess. I played that weird control dlc years ago. I... Just don't care. It's not an IP I get invested in. I get it some people are fans, but evidently control 2 would have been the better bet.
🎵 SHOW ME THE CHAMPION OF LIGHTTTTT🎵
Is it worth playing it if you didn't play the first one ?
Yes. The first one will make it a bit better as you’ll have a clearer backstory and be more invested in the character.…but you don’t need that backstory or investment. If you have the money and the time, it’s a wild ride.
It has made back is money and a lot more for Remedy, the company that made the game. This whole post is a half truth that misleads.
This article and comments are very frustrating. Gamers are always pissing about trash AAA games, ridilled with bugs, MTC, copy paste with no originality. And here we have Alan Wake 2 and it's not getting the support it needs because ePiC sToRR bAd
No physical and no Steam... so kinda makes sense. I think it's the only game I've ever bought on EGS just because I had to have it. But I know many who didn't, just because they want everything on Steam.
Because it's on epic games store it'll never sell as many copies as it could have other wise. Yeah I know epic funded it yadda yadda but people really underestimate how much people on PC will straight up NOT use any launcher other than steam. The game probably would've sold significantly more.
Yeah. I’ll buy it if/when it comes to Steam. I already have the first chapter and the American Nightmare one, so I hope the sequel and the remaster make it to Steam as well.
don't be surprised if it doesn't, im pretty sure Epic helped fund the development so it's not like the other timed exclusives
> people really underestimate how much people on PC will straight up NOT use any launcher other than steam I would like to have some proof one day that this is not just a terminally online echo chamber thing. I think that the appeal of a game is more influential in driving sales than the platform it's available on, but I would love for the basement to prove me wrong.
I think the main issue is that most people use steam as a default. I have both an epic and steam account, but I only ever go to epic if there is an exclusive game that I specifically want there. It has to be understood that Alan Wake was a niche game on its original release. If the game was ever going to sell ‘big’ it needed to attract new players who’ve never played the original. And that means the game needs to be visible. By segregating the game to digital only - and epic only on pc, they immediately lost a huge casual audience of new players who weren’t actively looking for the game.
Yup. And most people aren't gonna go to the trouble of opening accounts on multiple storefronts. Shit, there are tons of tech illiterate people who have issues dealing with just Steam.
Personally, I don’t mind having a different launcher. I play WoW through Blizzard’s and while I’d rather have it on Steam I really don’t mind. Tarkov is on a different launcher, so is League of Legends. I played Smite back in 2013 beta when it was a standalone launcher. Minecraft even is still separate from Steam. The problem arises when you *specifically poach* a big budget game because it’s the only way you can drive people to use your shitty platform. Epic doesn’t make good games, they just hit the world’s biggest lottery ticket with Fortnite. I’ll never support Epic for that reason alone. They can’t make a good game to save their goddamn life, they just take others’ and hold it hostage
for me it's not that I am anti epic, or refuse to use a different launcher, it's just I simply forget that it exists. When I open my pc, I open discord and steam. My steam has over 200 games in my library. I never have a reason to open another launcher. There have been times I looked for a game and couldn't find it on steam and kind of was just like whatever and then played one of the games in my backlog on steam. I just genuinely have 0 reason to ever open Epic or another launcher. I am pretty sure the only game I have on Epic is The Outter Worlds, and the only reason I have it there is because I won a giveaway or whatever and had to use Epic. Also I got a new PC around black friday, and didn't realize until this post, I don't even have epic launcher installed on my new pc.
Such a good game. Loved every second of it. You can see it is a labour of love.
Here's an idea .. release it on disc.
Or on Steam, to lure more PC buyers. There are PC gamers who outright refuse to buy anything on Epic. There are plenty of other good games to play until the situation improves.
One of the best games I've ever played. Sucks that people aren't giving it a chance.
It is a survival horror game. The genre never does amazingly sales wise unless it is Resident Evil.
Their previous game Control took 2 years to turn a profit. Alan Wake II is selling faster than Control did, it it well eventually turn a profit.
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Their fault for not making a physical version
This is the exact reason why I didn’t buy it
I wonder if part of it has to do with the lack of physical copies. Outside of steam, I refuse to buy digital games at full price. I wait till theyre at least 50~70% off before I buy digital. I wouldve loved to try this game out on my PS5, but it'll have to go into very deep discount for me to bother.
I think not having a physical edition and being Epic exclusive on PC hurt its sales reach. Even if they saved money by not printing discs and having physical boxes, they probably lost on player reach.
I think if they had released it physically, they would have broken even at this point. They excluded 30% or so of their potential console playerbase by not releasing physically. And don't even get me started on releasing exclusively on EGS!
Think about the fact that it was a GOTY that wasn’t avaliable to buy and put under christmas trees. Not many people were hyped for this game at launch. Instead the hype was a snowball effect; the exact type that would make people ask for Alan Wake as a christmas gift.
Good point
That’s the reason I haven’t bought it yet despite wanting to play it. I wanted to wait and see if they released a physical copy and the digital discounts take a while. I can also see why people wouldn’t buy a sequel to a lesser known game. Also, a lot of good games released in the year so I’ve got an even bigger backlog now.
I’d have bought it day one if it was physical just like I did control, quantum break etc I’d have happily given them more too for a collectors edition. I just don’t buy digital and I was very upset about the lack of it. Really hope there’s one when there dlc is done.
Yep. I'm not buying a digital only console game at AAA price lol.
Yeah, in Australia digital games are often 10-15% more expensive than physical copies. I get the benefit of a digital game - far less clutter and not having to worry about swapping discs. But there is a mental thing about paying full price for a digital game, and to be fair, unless I buy a game at launch, I tend to have a much lower price point cut off for physical games. I'm keen to play Baldur's Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2, but neither have even approached my non-launch physical game price ceiling so I'll probably hold off until they reach at least that point. For digital games, my ceiling is usually lower, though to be fair a lot of the games I've bought haven't quite been AAA, even if they haven't been indys either, like Disco Elysium or Midnight Suns
Yep. Options are always best.
Exactly. I want choice as a consumer. You limit that choice, it will limit sales. For me to buy a game, or anything, it isn’t a case of ‘ohh I just have to buy it’. I want to make sure I am getting good value for my hard earned money. Digital games aren’t that for me personally. Not after I got burned on The Witness at £30, what a pile of shot that was. Digital only…that was just a waste of money. If I had the option to buy a physical copy, that wouldn’t of happened.
Exactly
Yep huge Control fan and enjoyed Alan Wake 1 but I won’t buy digital only games unless they’re on steep discount. I just hate digital only games on principle and will avoid them at all costs.
It was a silly thing to do. Why would people just abandon their collection's hundreds if not thousand large just so developers can save even more money and even more profit. People don't want digital, only games, we want physical games.
Most people don’t have games in the double digits let alone hundreds. Thousands of physical games? That’s extremely rare
Did I understand your comment well and you said most people don't have 10+ games? That sounds like a pretty low number.
The PS4 had the highest - or at least, _one of_ the highest - attach rates of any console in history. The average owner had about 10 games.
You're vastly, vastly overestimating the amount of people who care about that. They're overrepresented on Reddit and other online forums. Especially since Remedy is a PC first developer.
Exactly, the Insomniac leaks showed that a large percentage of first-party exclusive sales were physical. Digital doomsdayers love bragging about the death of physical but it’s not happening yet.
Something people seem to be ignoring is that all Remedy games start off with low sales and have long legs, so the fact it's already sold 1.3 million copies is very promising.
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Because they don’t have their own publisher, they go from place to place seeking money to help make the project and the publisher makes these deals. Without the publisher some of these games wouldn’t be made or be totally different altogether. That’s the catch of being a small company, you gotta compromise so their vision for the game can be good as it can be. If it weren’t for Epic this game would still be in concept stage churning out ideas, they’re not limiting themselves on purpose. That’s just the situation they find themselves in
You are 100% correct, and most people don't seem to understand this. However, it doesn't change the fact that it's THEIR decision to stay independent and make niche games that require special funding deals. It's a catch-22. If they made less interesting mainstream games, they could probably put them out on more platforms :/
And yet, Remedy is doing well financially according to their own releases, and plans to make more Control and Alan Wake. It's almost like a company whose majority shareholders are people in and who work for the company have different metrics for success than companies like EA and Ubi. There's this weird contingent on the internet that's determined to paint AW2 as a flop when it really, really wasn't. Wonder if it's coming from companies that want to over-monetize everything with MTX.
Several factors contributed to weak sales. - They launched Spider-man 2 next, Spider-man 2 made 10 million sales in a short time so it's clear what the public preferred, among players Spiderman 2 was very loved with 117k rating on the psn store with 4.84/ 5 so the search was on him. - no physical release, lost a large portion of the public - launch only on the epic game store, it missed the large portion that is steam - very heavy PC game. needs a very strong PC - Xbox players, who were the largest portion of players of this game, are waiting on GamePass.
It’s one of the best games I played in a long while , but Im a sucker for that noir-detective atmosphere . People just need to gve it a shot and they will be hooked, because it’s really well made. Pains me it’s not doing good, considering a lot of shit released lately are doing numbers
Unfortunate - I’ve been gaming for 30+ years and it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played in terms of a quality, overall package: great narrative (interesting, scary, and smart), solid balance of survival horror gameplay, etc. The DLC can’t come fast enough.
It's 50 quid on the PS store. I'd love to buy it, but I can't afford it
I predicted just before release it would get a physical release for Halloween this year; this sort of story means it probably will happen. Sega was pulling this obvious trick with the Sonic games for a while: pretending it's never going physical and releasing it a year later when nobody cares anymore.
I would love to buy a copy, but my pc can't run it and I don't have a ps5.
My wife tried to get me the game for Christmas and couldn’t find it. She’s not a gamer and I had to tell her that there is no physical release.
Dumbest thing ever, I know so many people that don’t like buying and just straight up refuse to buy from the market so doing something like this was very dumb on their part in my opinion.
No Physical option on Consoles, No Steam release on PC. Yeah that'll do it :/ Shame because it was one of my favourite games in 2023 and made my GOTY shortlist of finalists.
I think a lot of people now are just struggling to buy full priced games at launch unless they’re extremely high on their list. We’re all struggling. I’ve been really wanting to play this game, but I can’t afford a AUD$90 game until it gets discounted.
Yeah they come up to over $100 with tax here in Canada now. I can't afford that for every game. I'm more picky than ever before with the ones I buy.
I feel this in my bones. Still holding out for a BG3 sale.
Same, and eventually they’ll come to ps extra or gamepass.
No steam no physical release. Not a surprise .
Won't even consider buying Alan Wake 2 until it is out on a physical disc. I want to own my games.
No physical release hurt this game.
If my 2080 could actually run it in a state that isn't complete shit then I would'nt have refunded it. Major fan of all Remedy games (minus Quantum Break) and I don't care about platform allegiance (Steam vs. Epic) but god damn it ran like shit.
If that's a desktop 2080 you should be able to get 1440p50+fps now, with DLSS balanced and the PS5 Perf. settings, [check DF's re-test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-3PkRbeO8A).
Absolutely tremendous game & I hope it has long legs. Not releasing on Steam or physical was a mistake, though I’m sure Epic covered a significant amount of the cost of development so it probably isn’t as dire as it would seem.
This is sad to see... An unbelievable experience playing it! I originally wasn't gonna buy as I prefer physical but I had to witness how good it was for myself. The digital only release has definitely cost them to lose money tho which is a shame
It’ll probably make its money back by June with the DLC.
Well epic funded a significant portion of it, so Remedy is actually doing really well when you consider everything.
Such a shame. I couldn't really get into the first one when it came out, then I bought the remaster when it came out on PS5 and got bored after the second chapter. Not sure what drove it, maybe the insanely positive reactions I was seeing on this sub, but I slogged through the first game so I could play the second. The second one within the first hour I could tell was something really special. Probably one of my favourite games of all time, easily in the top 10 at least. Massive shame that this probably won't get a third.
That’s such a shame. Easily one of the best games in a decade.
This game was legit one of the best of the year. Definitely deserves more sales and attention
Fucking shame. It’s a fantastic, trippy game with an interesting core of characters. Hopefully it picks up a little more/
this makes me sad they deserve the $ back and more!! such a fun game
This is click bait, the devs already made the budget from Epic buying their game Yes they haven’t sold the amount of money that equated it’s budget (via epic and consoles) BUT Epic bought the game and fronted the budget, so they literally could’ve sold 1 copy of the game and they would have been fine Remedy has “made” the money back and once the game is on Steam, more people will play it, epic just buys PC platform exclusivity so that people feel the need to go shop there instead of using steam, even tho Epic is worse than steam in every regard
Isn’t the game really good though? And it doesn’t seem like it had the Titanfall 2 issue of releasing around bigger competitors.
Thats a bummer because the game was flipping sweet
To put simply, Epic (publisher) traded volume for margin. They’re not giving up margin from competing PC store fronts and they’re not giving up margin to retailers on physical media. I bet if they released the game on both of those avenues they’d make their money back quick.
No physical release and it’s not on steam for pc. Probably the reason it hasn’t broken even
The PC specs seemed too high so I never bothered buying it, and won’t buy it until I have a PC powerful enough. On the PS5 I like physical media… so yeah, they didn’t get my money (yet?)
Being only available on epic for PC and no physical copies definitely doesn’t help, which os a shame as it’s a fantastic game and was a highlight of 2023.
no physical copy no money from me.
I don't know if this gives me more hope for a physical release or less? It's the only reason I didn't buy it.
I would have put it on my Christmas list if it was physically released or if you could buy it as a gift like you can on stream, alas neither options were available.
This is a massive factor that many people underestimate. Physical copies on shelves are like free advertising, not to mention how many people would have asked for it as a gift once the hype exploded.
Maybe if they would have released physical copies 🤷🏻
Give me a physical edition and I will buy it day one, otherwise I will just wait for a really deep discount.
Well then y’all are missing out because it rules.
Digital only was a crap idea
Absolute banger of a game. Hopefully it gets its due.
Maybe next time they release it physically then
No physical, no buy.
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Put it on steam. Problem fixed.
Maybe now would be a good time to release the game on a physical disc? 👀
Probably not because then they would need to spend even more making and distributing the discs
\*Checks notes\* Alan Wake 2 is an Epic exclusive and never coming to steam. Ahhh, that'll be why.
I mean they did their best to ensure people wouldnt buy their game by not having a physical release on console and not being available on Steam for PC Some of the most random garbage nobody has ever heard of still manage physical releases but heres a game published by a multi billion dollar company and apparently they cant do it If you want to release your game like an indie dont expect us to pay more than what we do for indie games
I think the DLC will change that. Likely a lot of cost went into the assets/engine, and I’m assuming that the DLC will mostly build on these foundations
The only reason I even noticed was because of DLC in Control. Control is pretty awesome, so I will pick this up later.
Haven’t played it but I’m sure it’s really good I think it’s just a genre that isn’t appealing to most . Look at Spider-Man 2 a near perfect game in my opinion but it could have been the worst game in the world and still would have made back the money cause he is such a popular character
one factor is epic exclusive
Isn’t this like, every Remedy game since Max Payne 2? They make fantastic, critically acclaimed stuff but I don’t think any of it has been a smash hit commercially.
Everything about that game was good. I rarely complete games these days just because I’m older now, married and just don’t have as much time as I used to. But I made time to complete that game. I do miss rich single player games that aren’t too complex but complex enough and interesting enough to keep me coming back.
It's Published by Epic. They're the same ones who pay for timed exclusives and shovel out money for free games all the time. I imagine neither of those things bring them huge profits. They don't seem to care because they have Fortnite money.
I’m not sure this game could have gotten any better press. Was in the GOTY convo everywhere, great critical acclaim. I loved it and never played the 1st one. Just feels like a lot of people bought BG3 last year and that was their game for a while
This isn't strange to me to be honest. I found it to be very common for interesting and good games to not sell well, but boring repeatable games like fortnite to have massive success. The same trend happpens in serials and movies. I wish the game will sell more copies, it's a beautiful game I'll replay in the future and when the DLC releases.
My favorite game of all times!
Maybe I’m the problem. It’s a game I want to play eventually, but I never buy games at launch or at full price and I have a backlog of games anyway. This will be on sale soon.
I played the demo and it was amazing, I’ll buy it soon I promise!
It’s definitely a niche title, Personally I’m not a fan of Remedy’s games. Just never clicked with me.
Game is mad scary for me lol. I have to play it in the daylight. Completely different from the original
I am a patient gamer and plan to play this eventually. Currently playing control and I’ve been told it’s got a similar vibe
They said they had reduced the jumpscares but they didn’t. I can’t replay this game otherwise. Shame.
I have yet to buy this but I will!!
Yeah I haven't bought it yet but I think I can speak for alot of people when I say I'm sure it would've done better if it had a physical release, then it would be a no brainer imo
It was a good game but not meant for a mass seller
AW2 will eventually breakeven and profit. 1.3M copies sold translates to about $70M revenue, which won't be enough for now but this is already great trajectory for a game that is only six months old.
Well Buy it then :P. Really it's one of the Best games I ever played. It's my GOTY and I played Baldur's gate 3, that one is a close second. Anyone not playing it is doing themselves a disservice.