Remedy took the somewhat unexpected decision earlier this year to delay Alan Wake 2 – but not into 2024 like is so common sometimes, but just for a week. Speaking with IGN about the Finnish developer’s decision, gaffer Sam Lake said that it was to space out the release schedule a little so all of the upcoming PS5 titles had an opportunity to shine.
“Well, we were looking at the week and we were looking at these brilliant, brilliant giant games coming out, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and all, and just felt like, well, we don't have to go neck to neck. We can just kind of shift it a couple of days!”
Originally, the game was scheduled to release on 17th October, just three days before the all-encompassing juggernaut that’s likely to be Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Now it’ll release on 27th October, and while it’ll still be flanked by the likes of Alone in the Dark and Ghostrunner 2, that should give it a little more room to breathe.
[source ign.com]
Comments 67
Makes sense. I hope this game does well.
Honestly it makes sense. A larger chunk of the sales would be on Playstation and I am happy they did this but I still think a November release would've been smarter.
Bit weird. Are they saying it was originally going to be before Spider-Man, which gave it a chance to get its teeth into people first, but they’ve now decided to release just after, when people are going to only be partway through a game that could take 100hrs to finish? Maybe I’m reading that wrong as I just woke up.
Don’t think it will make much difference tbh
Looking forward very much to Alan Wake 2, zero to Spiderman. Unfortunately there is no physical release so I won't buy it :/
Never bought a digital release at launch - I'm not stupid, full price without being able to sell it?
Makes sense, good decision.
Will still lose sales based on being digital only unfortunately
Not sure how much of an effect that will have, but I’m sure they wanted the game out before Halloween.
@Rob_230 Yeah, for me it went from a potential day 1 purchase to a wait for a sale. Physical copies at launch are usually cheaper than the PlayStation Store prices.
I'll buy the game but not on release as I still will be playing Spider-man 2.
Neck to neck???
Call me old fashioned but isn't it 'head to head'?
You can be 'neck and neck' in a race, and head to head before it starts.
Like saying they didn't want to release then as they would be going 'head and head' with Spider-Man.
Anyway, I'm being pedantic and have already pre-ordered both
Great, I hate superhero games. 1 week isn’t so bad.
@Grimwood so your saying anyone who buys digital is stupid? Well physical copy's wil be Obsolete soon just watch.
@Futureshark the saying is said both ways
Maybe I’m weird, but Spider-Man 2 honestly looks like it will pale in comparison to Alan Wake 2. Maybe that’s just me, but seriously…
A 2-3 week delay either way would have been smarter.
A week after instead of 3 days before is better, but only slightly. Some people will still be playing Spider-Man 2, and October is so ridiculously overloaded that a lot of the games will not sell anywhere near like they could have. It's like in Hollywood on Christmas Day where most of the movies bomb because they release way too many at the same time.
I agree with the person above me that a delay into November would have been a lot smarter. Having much more room to breath is better than coming out before Halloween, and I'm not sure why October became video gaming's Christmas Day this year.
@thefourfoldroot1 100 hours of Spiderman 2? I hope not.
It's a shame but I understand. Though I'm not one of those who are going to play Spiderman anyway
Would've bought it if a physical copy existed but no buy from me on digital,hope game is great for people who buy it
Venom > Morbius
Spider-Man, Sonic, and Mario in a three day time period. Sounds like a bad time for any other games to release, to be honest.
Huge spiderman/marvel guy.
This delay annoyed me more than anything because would had time to play Alan Wake 2 before spiderman 2 came out.
Think just skip spiderman 2 wait for Alan Wake 2 down the line pick up spiderman.
The issue is while it no long clashes head on with Spiderman it is still in a busy period and wallets are strapped. Il get this in December when everything dies down (which has always been weird to me XD)
@somnambulance It's definitely just you.
@K1LLEGAL He was saying 100 hours to complete probably, you don't have to 100% a game.
One would think you would want to be out before and not after; but whatever.
I’m still more excited for Alan Wake II than Spider-Man 2 (I’ll put in on my Christmas list).
Every single one of my friends who have a PS5, including those who played the first Alan Wake, will be playing Spider-Man when Alan Wake 2 comes out. SM2 is probably not going to be a 100hours game, but it will keep people occupied for a least 2 to 4 weeks. Releasing a digital only game during this time, and hoping for it to be a success is madness. I personally won’t buy Alan Wake 2 digitally until it’s on a very good sale, or unless they reverse the decision not to release a physical copy of it. And when you think about it, Xbox players won’t be jumping on AW2 either since they’ll probably be deep into Starfield, and not done with it at all.
I haven’t read all these comments - but if someone could give me a round up of how many of the usual suspects came along to tell us they wouldn’t buy it because it was digital only … that’d be great
@DuncanMcleod I don't think most people care about digital only but The Epic exclusivity mixed with the lack of physical copies plus SM2, AC Mirage and Mario coming out near release makes AW2's commercial prospects look very bleak unless the game is a 90+ rated on MC/OC
@StrawberryTurtle Nah, there’s others of us. In my personal circle, I’d say just about as many have Alan Wake 2 preordered as Spider-Man 2, but I’m aware that’s an anomaly. I know that, for the most part, more people are excited about Spider-Man.
That’s not me though. I’ve got seven games preordered the next two months and Spider-Man 2 isn’t one of them. And I will put any game I’m playing on hold for Alan Wake 2, as well. Even regardless of my personal taste, however, Alan Wake 2 does genuinely have what looks to be unique and high quality visuals and Remedy typically craft strong story-based gaming experiences. They’ve improved on gameplay game after game as well. I can see this being a game that exceeds what many expect of it. I think the gaming community at large forgets just how well Remedy can craft a game.
@K1LLEGAL
Can’t remember how long it took me to get the plat for 1. Guess it might have been 70 or so?
@somnambulance I feel you on this.
I think Spider-Man 2 will be great; but everything I have seen points to being a third Spider-Man game using the same formula as before. It's not that it is a bad thing, it's just something I don't mind waiting to play.
For me, I am excited about Alan Wake II because I feel like Remedy are risk-takers. They aren't afraid to make every game they make feel different than the last (well, except maybe Max Payne games as they were all pretty much the same). It just feels different from the bog-standard third-person survival horror game.
Plus, I've been waiting for years for Alan Wake II.
I would have still chose Alan Wake over Spiderman.
@GamingFan4Lyf it feels like I’ve been waiting a lifetime for Alan Wake 2 and honestly it’s a game that needed a sequel, as the first one left a lot open for continuation. Regardless of whatever happens, Alan Wake 2 will be the more unique game, while Spider-Man 2 will be… another example of Sony making a Ubisoft game but with more polish? Just being honest about that. I dunno. The first two were fine, but not exactly something that expanded my perspective on gaming in any capacit
Is the game "delayed on PS5" or delayed on all platforms?
@TheCollector316 All platforms got the delay.
@GamingFan4Lyf
I figured. I was just calling out the confusing way Push Square chooses to write things, causing their readers to only receive part of the information.
@TheCollector316 They did this with a video for Alan Wake II just recently. Made it sound like there was a PS5 gameplay but the video had Xbox Gamepad prompt:
"God Damn! Alan Wake 2 Just Looks Incredible on PS5"
Wasn't PS5 footage.
While I am sure the PS5 version will look great, it's still very misleading as it was probably high-end PC footage showcasing Nvidia DLSS 3.5.
@GamingFan4Lyf
Yeah, it's starting to bother me a bit. I love this site, but I dislike when an article says "Game X announced for PS5" or something like that results in me having to go to another site to see that I could also buy it on PC if I wanted to. I truly don't think being a PlayStation-focused site means readers are entitled to only part of the information.
Why? It's not like you can go to the store and see them standing there next to each other. The boxarts steaming: Buy me! Buy me! Giving you the difficult choice of wich to buy on the spot.
@TheCollector316 I have a cadence when it comes cycling through my gaming sites:
Eurogamer first, Nintendo Life second, Pure Xbox third, Push Square last. It's not due to any sort of favoritism, it's just that I have my bookmarks in alphabetical order. 🤣
I use Eurogamer to get the high-level side of game news and go to the dedicated sites for the fan-base side of things (and to interact with the individual communities as the Eurogamer comments section is trash).
@Futureshark neck and neck refers to a race
Head to head is like a wrestling/fighting match
@thefourfoldroot1 Agreed, and also one week after people spent at least $70 into Spider-Man 2 or Mario Wonder (which releases the same day), so honestly they should’ve delayed at least a couple of weeks after October 20.
Maybe I'm just poor, but delaying for a week doesn't make much sense to me.
Honestly if I were to purchase Spider-Man 2 at launch price I wouldn't be able to purchase any other game until next month, especially another one at launch price as well.
Don't understand why they don't move the release date out of October entirely, there's like 8 major games releasing October right?
Either way, I will be buying this day one. Remedy's games don't seem to get nearly the attention/sales they deserve. It's' a shame.
I would like to play at least 5 games this year but in a story-driven game I always find myself check every corner to see what's up. When they say it takes about 20 hours to beat them, in my case it's 30 hrs at least (and I'm not talking about platinuming the game, just wondering around at my own pace). I will start with Mirage, then lord of the fallen, spider man and so on.. Considering my speed with the limited time I get to play games when I finally grab Alan wake it will be late December. Of course I will not buy/preorder a new game till I finished the previous one, it doesn't make sense to do so.
Still waiting for a it to go on sale if there's no physical. People can claim Remedy are practically an indie studio even though they have 360 employees as much as they want but it won't change my mind.
@Rob_230 not only that but going by past sales it is not going to sell that well.
Alan wake 1 still is only at 4 million control sold 3 million.
Because digital only this will maybe sell 1 million and go on psplus and gamepass within 6 months.
I mean I'm not missing Spider-Man 2 for goddamn Alan Wake so this doesn't mean anything really
They're quoting Spider Man but we all know it's really Super Mario Wonder that they're scared of going head to head with
My sons can't wait for Spider-man and I'm super hyped for AW2 so they'll both get a sale to this house.
Spiderman 🕷 is definitely gonna sells a lot of ps5.alan wake 2 did the right thing.Word up son
I don't know why this year so many devs and publishers chose October as the launch month. Now they're getting worried that their chosen date will overlap with one from a big IP...
November and December were left rather empty, wouldn't it have been better to delay some of the titles 'till then?
After Call of Duty's launch date, there's not much left 'till January
And they could have determined more people to buy their game at launch if some of the titles were more spread out in an interval of a few months, instead of pushing and crowding titles one after the other, all in the course of 4-5 weeks...
I'm not complaining, au contraire, I'm very happy we get so many cool games so fast. Won't be able to buy all of them as soon as they hit the market, but at least they're available. And maybe closer to end of the year we may even get to buy some of them at a small discount, having passed ~2 months since release. And during this time quite a few bugs get patched, so much the better for us and our "inner peace".
But it's just weird the publishers didn't plan this better, at least for their own sake... lack of vision, it seems, this "angle" escaped them.
What game releases in those immediate weeks can forget it frankly. Starfield lmao you ain’t seen nothing yet in terms of numbers 😁. Ragnarok did 11 million in ten weeks.. staggering… this will eclipse it
@Falkirk4life He says it stupid to buy in day and he is right.
It's more expensive then in the store, you will never own it, can't resell it and to be honest he is right.
Digital is always available (untill a license expires and it's lost to time). Never understood why the Digital crowd applauds this the second it's digital they don't have anymore competition and the prices go up you watch.
@Shinnok789 It's easier to make a excuse when it fails? I have the same question like you I think a month later would have been smarter.
No physical release put Alan Wake 2 in my deep sale pile.
No interest in Spiderman. Not big into Marvel/DC and the like.
@Grimwood If you're going to sell a game anyway, there's no reason to buy it. The myth that physical copies grant you ownership and are therefore more valuable than a digital copy needs to be crushed. All you're paying for is the license to use the product, regardless of whether there's a physical edition or not. Once you get past the outdated way of thinking, you can live a better life. Welcome to a decade ago.
@Flaming_Kaiser You have never owned a single game you've ever purchased, HOWEVER, once you purchase a digital license it is YOURS forever unless you break the ToU. Nobody can revoke your access to that license if you're using it the way you should, and if they do they're likely doing so on a large scale and would be subjected to a massive lawsuit. Do people even think logically these days when trying to put digital ownership down? 😂. To further put your argument down, the potential for this happening is going to be for extremely old (and forgotten) games, or those that died quickly after launch. To prevent this, don't buy online required/only games. They're shallow anyway and not worth your time. Simple to avoid.
Furthermore, digital has always been cheaper than physical but obviously not on D1M1 (day 1 minute 1). Unless it's a massive going out of business sale or a 15 yr old bargain bin game, most retailers cannot mark a game below $19.99. Many of my digital games were purchased for under $10 barely a year later on one of many flash/holiday sales.
As for prices going up.... um.... the industry is becoming more expensive to produce the content gamers want. Games have pretty much been the exact same price since the SNES days, and only a young casual wouldn't know that. Wait for a sale if you're tight on cash, gaming is a luxury not a right after all.
And finally, movies and music have pretty much been all digital for longer than gaming has, and none of these issues have presented themselves. The apocalyptic scenarios you've presented here haven't even occurred in gaming, and as a matter of fact, digital has only HELPED with game preservation whereas we've lost countless games to the sands of time before digital was even available that we'll never see again.
The digital naysayers are quite easily the least intelligent portion of this hobby, and incredibly detrimental to its growth.
@PixelDragon And in the end I allways resell it. The prices are going up so are all the forms of monetization. Tell me how many games don't have extra income from DLC, gambling, seasonpasses, expansions, microtransactions. My PS1 discs still work, my SNES cardridges still work, my Gameboy cardridges still work. Ubisoft has shown us that digital can be revoked aswell so there goes your response.
@KilloWertz it's always been october. Call of Duty releases in November, and people want to get their games out before Black Friday and Christmas both, while also staying away from the best selling game every year.
@Falkirk4life basic grammar is obsolete too by the looks of things...
@somnambulance yeah it's just you
I wasn't into the first game and I'm not interested in this one so it was never an issue for me.
@zhoont It's not just this game though. Seeing one game after another being announced as releasing in October is ridiculous because it's impossible for them all to sell. Hollywood does this with movies on Christmas Day and most bomb, and the same will happen with some of these games.
Even just pushing it back another week would have helped a lot more. It would still have had a week before Call of Duty.
@Falkirk4life Good luck with that.
Tap here to load 67 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...