Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind the Alan Wake and Max Payne series, expressed disappointment with the launch of its recent cooperative shooter, FBC: Firebreak, in its latest half-year financial earnings report. Set in the same universe as Alan Wake and Control, FBC: Firebreak was released to middling reception back in June. However, despite initial dissatisfaction, Remedy Entertainment remains committed to supporting the game in the long term, aiming to turn things around.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The Remedy Entertainment financial report covered the studio’s activities during the first six months of 2025. In it, they announce that work on the Max Payne remakes is still ongoing and that revenue grew by 43.4%, with a 63.5% increase in revenue in the second quarter.
However, the company expressed dissatisfaction with its recent launch of FBC: Firebreak, Remedy Entertainment’s first foray into the multiplayer space. While the game managed to reach over one million players in its first 10 days on console, it heavily underperformed on Steam. According to the third-party data website SteamDB, FBC: Firebreak couldn’t break 2,000 concurrent players at launch and currently averages only double-digit players on the platform.
“Commercially, we were unsatisfied with the launch-phase consumer sales of FBC: Firebreak,” said the report. “Thus far, FBC: Firebreak’s commercial performance has largely been driven by the Xbox and PlayStation subscription service agreements. A considerable portion of the revenues from these agreements will still be recognized throughout the contract period.”
Still, despite what the company called a rough start, the developers point to the improvement of recent reviews on Steam as they focus on adding to the game. Remedy declared its intention to double down on marketing and game development for FBC: Firebreak, aiming to expand its player base.
“Despite the rocky launch, we believe we have a solid game to build on,” said Remedy. “Players who spent over an hour with the game reviewed the game mostly positively – showing us that the core experience of the game is entertaining.”
Remedy Entertainment has recently been struggling with monetizing its games, despite its venerated reputation in the gaming space. Communications Director Thomas Puha revealed last year that Alan Wake 2 was still not profitable for the company over a year after its launch. Remedy also teamed up with Rockstar Games for the remakes of Max Payne 1 & 2, for which Rockstar agreed to foot the bill for development costs.
Despite these monetization and audience reception struggles, Remedy Entertainment is still pushing forward to improve FBC: Firebreak, which players point out has potential but lacks the necessary content to keep them engaged.
“It costs too much for the criminally low content in the game, you’ve seen everything in 5/6 hours,” wrote Steam user Keylaan. “Gunplay is lacking. The kits are lacking. The game in general is a released alpha.”
What are your thoughts on the cooperative sci-fi shooter? If you played it and then put it down, does the promise of additional content and updates make you want to check it out again if the game gets more fleshed out? Let us know in the comments.
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of HBO
