While both games were critically acclaimed, Remedy’s newly-appointed CEO believes Alan Wake and Control “should have sold more” and been more commercially successful than they were. That being said, he has a remedy for Remedy’s titles (thank you Matt, for pointing out this the perfect word play here), and believes film and TV adaptations will give the games a boost.
It came as a bit of a surprise when Jean-Charles Gaudechon – a former EA executive who has worked on the likes of FIFA – was appointed Remedy’s new CEO back in February. But while a developer known for its narrative-rich and rather surreal single player games may not have seemed like the obvious next step for Gaudechon, it sounds like he has a clear direction in mind for Remedy, and doesn’t plan to “change the DNA of a 30-year successful game studio” following his appointment.
“Remedy is one of the few studios which is genuinely supported by players. Even my announcement was something I loved, because people were protecting Remedy,” Gaudechon explained to The Game Business. “When I was announced, people from the industry and close friends sent me messages saying things like: ‘JC, that’s awesome. Congrats’. And the last line was, ‘Don’t fuck it up’. It was: ‘We love Remedy so much. Don’t fuck it up’. That shows you how much people love Remedy.”
Gaudechon wants Remedy to continue making the kinds of games it is known for, but also expand the franchises it already has. The studio “could make some improvements” to ensure its work finds a wider audience, he said, adding Remedy is “already one of the biggest game authors, with very strong signature products”.
“Now after seeing it from the inside, there’s so much more we can give in terms of super strong authored, creative, crazy stories and gameplay,” he said. “Honestly, we haven’t achieved half of the potential in terms of the products that we make.” Gaudechon believes that the likes of Control and Alan Wake “could give a lot more”, and there is a “vision on thinking bigger for some of these IPs, which need to find its audience much, much further than the current audience”.
Part of this strategy comes from a deal signed prior to Gaudechon’s appointment in February. Back in 2024, Remedy Entertainment announced a partnership which would see Annapurna Pictures financing half of Control 2 in exchange for the film and TV rights to Control and Alan Wake.
“We need to think more about how we are approaching our IPs as a franchise,” Gaudechon explained. “How do we grow the community? [The deal with] Annapurna goes into making our games, our franchises shine further and reach an audience that doesn’t exist today.” Remedy’s CEO called it a “pity” that games like Alan Wake and Control didn’t sell more, as he believes they should have. While Remedy has released several games in recent years, none have managed to become runaway commercial success stories. Alan Wake 2 became Remedy’s fastest-selling game to date following its release in 2023, but only turned a profit for the company in 2025. Control multiplayer spinoff FBC: Firebreak, meanwhile, failed to garner enough traction to sustain ongoing support, and in March of this year, Remedy announced it would not be adding any more new playable content after its Open House update. The company also has remakes of Max Payne 1 and 2 in “full production” together with publisher Rockstar Games, though they remain without a release date.
“To me, that’s one of the first things we need to fix, even before trying to make more games to a certain extent,” Gaudechon said. “First of all, maximize the potential of the ones we have, because they’re incredible. And cross-media is going to help us do that.”
This is not a bad call from Gaudechon. After all, the Fallout games saw a significant boost in player numbers following the debut of Amazon’s TV show. The same thing happened with Nintendo’s games following The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s release.
In the short term, though, Remedy has a sequel to 2019’s Control, known as Control Resonant, still to come. While in the first game players took control of Jesse Faden, Resonant will tell her brother Dylan’s story. While we still don’t have a release date, in May Remedy assured Control Resonant was still on track for 2026.
