The team behind Alan Wake 2 has come out and addressed the busy time it is releasing in. Alan Wake is one of the most beloved cult-classic horror games out there, it really resonated with a lot of people because of how unique it was. Using the tropes of a writer and episodic storytelling to craft a campy, psychological mystery was really compelling for a lot of people. It was heavily inspired by things like Twin Peaks, offering a cozy aesthetic to the mind-bending horrors the game contained. However, it didn’t do well enough commercially to warrant a sequel when it was released in 2010. It unfortunately went up against one of the greatest games ever made, Red Dead Redemption, and came out in the summer, which isn’t exactly the best time for horror content traditionally. While it was well received, the release window it took on seemed to have been its commercial downfall.
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With that said, Alan Wake 2 just announced its October release date recently and… it’s already looking problematic. Alan Wake 2 is currently slated to release on October 17th, 2020 and while it looks truly fantastic and early previews are praising it, it has a big contender: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. The new PlayStation exclusive will release just three days later on October 20th. Granted, Alan Wake 2 is also on Xbox and PC, so it still has an audience. However, it is also coming out just a week after Assassin’s Creed Mirage. When speaking to VGC, Alan Wake 2 co-director Kyle Rowley noted how the team isn’t afraid of the competition due to how different the titles are and has tried to prepare accordingly.
“You know, we already knew that Assassin’s Creed Mirage was going to be in the fall, we knew that Sony had already said that Spider-Man 2 was going to be in the fall, so we kind of already knew that they would be around us. We feel that we’re proud of the game that we built, and I think the people who resonate with that kind of game… whether they buy Alan Wake 2 or Spider-Man 2 isn’t really what we’re thinking about. We just want to put forward our game and present it to the players. You know, one is an adventure game, one is a horror game.”
Only time will tell how Alan Wake 2 performs as the entire fall lineup is jam packed already. Either way, hopefully it performs well enough to allow Remedy the opportunity to keep making games in this series. It’s been a long time coming and it would be a shame to see it disappear once more.
Are you excited for Alan Wake 2? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
