Can’t say I am surprised even slightly. Following up the smash-hit of Control with a whimsical, tongue-in-cheek, class bssed FPS co-op multiplayer game was a really stupid move. That’d be like Valve saying they’re releasing Half-Life 3 as a third person extraction shooter.
They seem pretty disconnected with what their fans actually want. The world and lore that Control establishes (and links with Alan Wake, ofc) is so rich and interesting with so many mysteries and unknowns left untapped. They could’ve continued the story with Jesse or another character and it probably would’ve sold like hotcakes.
They didn’t make much money off alan wake 2 after locking it on epic and not printing a physical copy for the console people for a year (and even then was only a limited deluxe and collector’s edition release). This seemed like a hail mary to try and get that sweet gaas money, but I imagine the overlap between people who play games like control and people who are willing to dump endless money on the live service game of the week skins is pretty small.
I think there is a space for these kinda games, but going so high budget with it was a mistake. A studio should probably have a flagship series (or universe, in this case) and keep side projects smaller scoped so the limited audience doesn’t hurt the rest of the studio.
Also release AW2 on Steam lol
Or GOG
Seriously, people really like to ignore that a lot of games are eternally locked in Steam and this has been a criticism since its inception.
Yeah I mean I don’t hate it exists but I wouldn’t expect it to make a ton of money
You’d think by now these companies would know the epic deal is radioactive.
It was literally the only way Alan Wake 2 was getting made, no other publisher would finance the project after Alan Wake 1 sold poorly and Sam Lake/Remedy really wanted to make it.
I didn’t even know that FBC Firebreak had anything to do with Control until reading this post.
Same! It still A. Doesn’t look like they have anything in common and B. Is a completely different style of game that’s just a money suck. How did they think any of that same audience would show up for this?
I thought it was a sequel to Firewatch for some reason based on the name alone and didn’t really bothered with it.
Man I’d love a sequel to Firewatch, if only Valve didn’t basically kill that studio.
I think the story has been told to an end, but Valley of the Gods looked promising nevertheless.
It’s set inside the First House of the Bureau and you play as generic agents taking care of problems (which is still 90% the Hiss but there are, like, boss fights against “SCPs” like a traffic light and shit).
That’s exactly what they are doing with Alan Wake 2 and Control 2. It’s pretty clear Firebreak was meant to be a way to make a quick buck, and live service games are seen as free money printing machines. For some reason nobody told Remedy that the market is cutthroat and half-assing it won’t be even remotely enough.
Also it just doesn’t make sense. The FBC are supposed to be clean cut, 1960s Mad Men or Men in Black aesthetic operatives. But the characters and even the logo are sloppy, rag tag looking.
Were they expecting FBC to do numbers? 🤨
I dunno if it’s improved much, but at launch it felt like some kid’s janky-ass mod more than a AA game from Remedy.
And it was even dumber to set that kind of game in such a dope world when the game itself doesn’t have much exploration or even a plot.
I love Remedy and their connected universe games but the narrative is a huge part of that for me so FBC wasn’t really even on my radar. I knew about it but an online team game isn’t what I’m looking for from them. Evidently I’m not alone on that.
Surprisingly, Firebreak actually revealed a lot about the state of things in the RCU, at least for The Oldest House. Its not told directly to your face particularly, but it is revealed in voice lines, loading screens, and the missions themselves.
Its actually a really fun game. Still needs some work but if they keep with the updates they’ve done recently, I think it will be fine. The devs did express interest in trying to let players host their own matches in a way that allows Firebreak to survive any sort of server shutdown. The game is already P2P for the most part, so probably wont take too much work.
I was originally interested in FBCF, but not being an always online game and even less at that price. If they wanted less risk they should’ve given players better options on how to buy and play their game.
Never even heard of it
