Alan Wake Dev Cancels Multiplayer Game Before It Was Even Announced

Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment and Tencent have announced the cancellation of the upcoming "premium cooperative multiplayer game" that the companies were building together. Codenamed Kestrel, the game was in the "early concept stage" of development.

Tencent, the Chinese internet giant, was co-financing and co-publishing the game. Development began in November 2023 after a reboot when the project was known as Vanguard.

A "small team" was working on the latest iteration of the game prior to its cancellation, Remedy said.

Game development is a highly iterative process, and cancellations of this nature happen across the entire video game business. What it is a bit more unusual here is the granular detail and transparency that Remedy has provided on this project, which went through various changes and a reboot during its development. In terms of the scope of game cancellations across the industry, there are no official figures, but Blizzard has said it cancels about 50% of the games it starts. PlayStation, meanwhile, is known to cancel many games, even if they're never revealed.

Remedy said it decided to cancel Kestrel so its developers could "focus more on the other games" it has in development, and staffers working on Kestrel are now being reassigned. Remedy added that its planned investments for Kestrel, along with hiring needs, are now reduced due to the cancellation.

Remedy CEO Tero Virtala said Kestrel showed "early promise," but it never graduated out of the concept stage for unknown reasons.

"I want to thank our Kestrel development team. Though we decided to discontinue the project for wider Remedy benefits, our team has done good work and provided us with valuable learnings," Virtala said. "I also want to thank Tencent for their partnership so far. They have been very professional and supportive."

In March, Remedy announced that it was writing off the development costs associated with the project. The company also alluded to why it abandoned the game, saying "the potential was not there" and that "the requirements for a successful new free-to-play game have clearly increased during the past years."

While Kestrel is not moving ahead, Remedy has numerous other games in the works, including remakes of Max Payne 1 and 2, as well as Control 2 and a Control multiplayer spin-off called codenamed Condor.