Remedy on Alan Wake: Story went right, marketing went wrong

by Richard Mitchell on Oct 22nd 2010 12:20PM

IGN recently visited Remedy's headquarters in Finland to discuss the successes and failures of Alan Wake. According to Remedy's Matias Myllyrine, the team is very happy with the "mood and the story and the setting" of the game. While the project underwent significant changes during development -- it was originally an open world game, for example -- Myllyrine believes it remains "very close" to the original vision "in terms of feel, mood and atmosphere."

As for failure, Myllyrine wished that Alan Wake's marketing would have had "an even crisper communication of what the game does," adding that it could have used "stronger advertising about what's unique about this game." We'd certainly agree that a sequel -- should it see the light of day -- needs stronger marketing, but we have another piece of advice as well: Don't release your game on the same day as Red Dead Redemption.

Source: IGN

Tags: Alan-Wake, marketing, microsoft, Microsoft-Game-Studios, Remedy, xbox

Reader Comments (90)

Seriously, the best game of the year. Shame is sold so poorly.

Not releasing on the PC probably hurt your bottom line too, Remedy.

@Unknown

Yeah trying to turn PC sales into 360 hardware sales doesn't make people want to run out and buy the game lol

@Unknown

I agree, it sucks that this game isn't on PC. That said, it's still a great game worth experiencing on 360.

@Unknown This definitely turned my sale into a non-sale, I was planning on picking it up day one, after waiting about 17 years for it to release on PC, and then they nix the PC version. Even though I have a 360, that was a bad sign to me, so I avoided it, and have just lost interested since.

@Kaizan Buy it now!
...Please?

@Unknown
Yeah, that. The PC guys have been waiting for it for years then you suddenly drop the PC version - you're gonna lose sales, duh!

@Unknown Probably would have been pirated more

Apparently even the people making the instruction manual didnt get the memo that Alan Wake wasnt open world, why the hell was there a huge MAP with spots to visit included with the damn game?

@aughscreennames

Was it at least accurate?

@aughscreennames

That's what irks me the most, not that it's a linear game per se, but the fact that from early reports I was lead to believe the world shown in the trailers was actually gonna be a real place, only to have that cut down later to a forced-along lineup of events. I just hate getting my hopes up. :(

Alan Wake is an amazing game, and it deserved Halo caliber sales.

Though I have to agree, releasing on the same day as Red Dead was not the best idea. Though I guess they had no idea how much of a phenomenon RDR was going to be.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Red Dead was GTA in the old West, a crazy popular franchise set in a crazy popular (and under represented) genre. Remedy's marketing machine should have had an inkling it would be a strong competitor for Day 1 sales.

@adrunkamputee

Maybe they should have, but I didn't have an inkling either. In the months leading up to RDR's release, all I was reading was stories about morale problems, schedule overruns, and financial crises in the RDR development studio.

I was expecting RDR to be a joyless GTA mod that was forced out to retail so they could shut down the development team. I was floored it turned out to be one of the best games of the year.

@adrunkamputee

I disagree, I mean it's not like Red Dead Revolver was a breakthrough phenomenon on the PS2, and I know a lot of gamers were critical of what Rockstar did with GTA4, which I believe correlated with reservations towards RDR (as some touted being a GTA4 clone in a Wild West setting).

I think what also hurt Alan Wake was it's prolonged absence from the market after it was first teased around the 360's release.

MS will spend half a billion dollars marketing Kinect and it's crappy games, but goes through no effort to get this game out there.

As a game company, sometimes I wonder what microsoft is doing. I play my 360 more than any other console, but when I see how right Sony is doing things like marketing the right games and products, MS starts to not sit so well with me.

Alan Wake is one of the best games this generation, it's an experience you just don't get anywhere else. Games like this should sell well and be marketed over "Kinectimals."

@Ryuk

But... KINECTIMALS!

COME ON!

@Ryuk

See, thats just it though. You already have an Xbox and buy/play Xbox games. Microsoft already has you (and me too!)

What Microsoft doesnt have is the housewife/casual gamer/younger kid crowd, and thats what that 1/2 a billion is going towards getting.

@Ryuk

MS is spending half a billion on connect marketing because it is new hardware.

agreed. I had a blasty playing this game

Very sound advice that lol

I am waiting for the GOTY edition with all the DLC to come out. Then I will buy it at retail to get all my goodies and support the developer too.

@Kamal

You're waiting on a edition that may never come for one additional piece of DLC to be included? If you buy the game new today, it comes with the DLC token for The Signal. The Writer is the only DLC you'll need to spend 560MS on. It

I would have bought the PC version if they didn't cancel it. My friend loaned me his 360 to play it and I beat it in one sitting but even still, I would have supported the PC version regardless.

The game is great ... the problem is in the idiots who didn't buy it , they missed a real piece of art... vote me down if you want but there's nothing wrong with Alan Wake... and It's definitely better than RDR

I loved this game. I finally got my final Achievement for the 2nd DLC and now I'm itching for more!!!

This game could have used some of the Halo budget for it's marketing. The Short Films were pretty interesting, but I think only the hard core saw them.

My only advice to Remedy is this: Take a trip to Rockstar Games Studio for tips on the voice acting.

The marketing media tells me that this isn't exactly a conventional game and doesn't really allude to what it is, so maybe I'd be more intrigued by it if I could play a demo. A demo can turn an underground hit into a mainstream success.

Vanquish was just released, and they got my money for that game because I got to play the demo, despite the fact that it isn't a "main feature" game released in the midst of industry giants like Halo: Reach, Call of Duty Black Ops, and Medal of Honor. I think otherwise the game would have been completely looked over, since it costs the same as all those other games.

If you know you're going to be competing with a giant like RDR, then get a demo out there and let people see the game in action so they know what they're paying for.

RDR wasnt a giant at all. I would bet that way more people knew about Alan Wake than they knew about RDR, Alan Wake was the 360's "killer title" when they first showed the 360, and it became even more famous with its Duke Nukem style delays and silence.

RDR was actually delayed for a month because nobody cared, they needed more time to hype the game up. It sold well because word got out that it was an excellent game and they showed a lot of gameplay that proved it was an excellent game, not because it was the sequel of an extremely poorly selling PS2 game. RDR went from zero to hero while Alan Wake went from super hype to luke warm as word got out that it wasnt as great as it seemed.

The story in Allen Wake consists of a man walking around the woods citing Stephen King quotes every few minuets, and the gameplay consists of a hyper-scripted assembly line shooter that does the absolute bare minimum with everything it could possibly offer in terms of combat, interaction, and level design.

Maybe that's too harsh but I'd say those are the actual problems with the game.

@Jovrick

Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh, but it's ALAN Wake. There's a giant picture with the name and then it's repeated in the headline and in the post again. Sorry, but it just bugs me...

@Jovrick You summed up my impressions exactly. I was also put-off by the inclusion of useless collectibles; a tell-tale sign that a developer had run out of ideas for gameplay content.

@Jovrick
Despite you misspelled the name of the game, I agree with you. Alan wake is very, very boring in terms of gameplay.
And this comes from a Stephen King's number one fan.

I insist: BORING.

Boring.

The game is just one of the latest casualties in the ever more present developer mindset that people don't want to think for themselves or figure anything out and instead just want the game's pretty scenes neatly presented to them automatically while pressing a few buttons every once in a while to make things happen on screen so they can pretend they're actually playing.

They don't get that this sort of thing is incredibly boring to actual gamers. Too bad hardly anyone these days can really be called that.

It's not really Remedy's fault that RDR changed it's release date at the last second

@Enigma7ic It certainly isn't, but they still have to deal with the consequences. They could have pushed a demo out there, and the marketing staff could have raised awareness of the game's release better. It seems ridiculous to me that after 5 years of development and acquiring it as a first party title, Microsoft seemingly decided it was going to be a sales flop, and pulled out on the very thing that would have made the difference: marketing.

Alan Wake was better than RDR. But they really needed to make up their mind about what platform they were releasing it on before starting the hype.

@Faceless Troll lol downvote. "ohnoes someone thinks some game was better than RDR."

Releasing the same day as RDR really was a stupid idea. I bought it day one, even got it at midnight, but to a lot of people it just was too much of a risk when there was such a big title coming out the same day. It's a shame. I really hope their lack of foresight there doesn't mean we miss out on a sequel.

If they release the holiday bundle with Forza and Alan Wake stateside, I will get to play this soon. Got my fingers crossed.....

Na, game wasn't all that, very repetitive and you could just run though most sections. DLC was overpriced and not long.

@Usr666
Wrong wrong wrong. This game had 2 DLC packs, one at $0 and one at $5.

Stop trolling

@xreadmore Not if you got it used or borrowed it from someone, which I did. I know you fanboys love this game but it's not all that, RDR kicked it's butt in terms of gameplay, length of play, and overall bad assness.

@xreadmore BTW, they where both $7/EACH

@Usr666

So....someone who likes Alan Wake is a fanboy, but someone who raves over RDR isn't huh?

Why would you buy dlc for a game you borrowed anyway?

@Usr666
The fact is the DLC was cheap and you couldn't just run through the levels unless you were pretty skilled or didn't care about anything other then finishing a level. Even then you could only run by a couple sections in any given level. I mean the only time I "ran" through parts of a level was on Nightmare mode, and that's because ammo was scarce. It also took some GD skill. And if you hated the game so much why would you buy DLC?

You really have to pretend you bought the DLC for this so you can complain? Go troll elsewhere.

@Usr666

You fail at life.

Slowly playing through Alan Wake right now. It is as good as everyone said it is. Just wish they released a demo.

This is not really the best game for an x360 exclusive. I'd have bought it if it was released on PC, but I'm sure Microsoft gave em a lot more money than I would have.

Remedy neglected to mention that news of this game was first released what? 3 years ago? 4 years ago? People in the know realize this generally means a substandard game in the vein of Too Human or even the first Fable.

This isn't to say any of the above are bad games per say, just not even close to the original vision and somewhat rushed after it is realized the developer doesn't have the manpower or skill to pull it off.

Just release a crappy movie loosely based on the game starring Mark Walhberg.

Then we'll get a sequel. Advertising Problem solved.

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Alan Wake

Remedy on Alan Wake: Story went right, marketing went wrong

Reader Comments (90)

Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 12:29PM HowardtheDuck said

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Posted: Oct 23rd 2010 12:33AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 12:32PM lessthankris said

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Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 12:38PM Kamal said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 1:00PM Iwa said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 12:38PM The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 12:41PM solidsnake8282 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 12:43PM xreadmore said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 12:46PM noyesa said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 12:59PM aughscreennames said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 12:46PM Jovrick said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2010 1:22PM Uncle Jesse said

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