Remedy Entertainment

Remedy Entertainment
Private
Industry Computer and video games
Interactive entertainment
Founded 1995[1]
Headquarters Espoo, Finland[1]
Key people
Products Max Payne series (2001–3)
Number of employees
132 (as of November 12, 2014)[1]
Website www.remedygames.com

Remedy Entertainment Ltd. is a Finnish video game and game technology developer. The company is best known for developing Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Quantum Break.

History

Early years and products

The original Remedy logo that caused LucasArts to threaten legal action due to the logo resembling the upper portion of the LucasArts logo[3]

Remedy was founded in 1995 by demoscene members from groups such as Future Crew. The year after Remedy released its first game Death Rally, a top-down perspective racing shooter published by Apogee and distributed by GT Interactive Software. In the game the player competes in deadly races with armed cars, trying to finish first while destroying opponents and fulfilling missions.

Still attached to the demoscene, Remedy took part in the 1997 Assembly with Final Reality, a combination of a demo and a 3D benchmark program. Later that year Remedy founded a new company named Futuremark for developing benchmark software that would eventually turn into 3DMark.

The Max Payne era

In 2001, Remedy released its second game Max Payne, which tells the story of the eponymous fugitive undercover cop in New York City, vengeful for the murder of his family, framed for the murder of a DEA agent, and hunted by NYPD and the American Mafia. The game is best known for its film noir influences and popularizing bullet time in video games.

Remedy sold all the rights to Max Payne in 2002 to Take-Two Interactive for US$10 million and 969 932 shares of stock.[4] The following year, a sequel to the franchise developed by Remedy and Rockstar Games was released, titled Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. This would be Remedy's last Max Payne game, as Rockstar continued developing the franchise on its own, but some Remedy employees kept supervising the making of Max Payne 3, like Sam Lake. The latest addition to the series, Max Payne 3 was released on May 15, 2012 in North America and on May 18, 2012 in Europe.

Alan Wake and revised Death Rally

In 2005, Remedy revealed that it was developing a new IP titled Alan Wake, a game about a writer of the same name whose wife disappears during the couple's vacation in the Pacific Northwest. While searching for his wife, Alan realizes the events are coming to life from a thriller he doesn't even remember writing.[5]

Alan Wake combines a third-person shooter with psychological horror, drawing inspiration from Twin Peaks and the works of Stephen King. The game was released on Xbox 360 in 2010 and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Alan Wake was extended with two DLCs titled The Signal and The Writer, which act as new episodes in the episodic storyline of Alan Wake.

In 2011, Remedy extended to mobile platforms with the launch of a Death Rally remake on iOS devices. Next year the revised version was released on Android devices and PC as well. Remedy also extended the Alan Wake franchise with a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade title Alan Wake's American Nightmare. The stand-alone game loosely continues the story of Alan Wake, set in a small town of Night Springs, Arizona. In the game Alan tries to chase down his evil doppelgänger Mr. Scratch, who threatens to take away everything Wake loves, including his wife. The game was also released for the PC in May 2012.

Current projects

Remedy has recently finished working on Quantum Break, which was announced during the Xbox One event on 21 May 2013.[6] The game was released on April 5, 2016.[7] During the development of Quantum Break, the CEO of Remedy, Matias Myllyrinne, and Oskari Häkkinen, the head of franchise development, departed from the company.[8][9]

During the 2013 VGX Awards, they also revealed Agents of Storm, which came to iOS in early 2014.

Games developed

Year Game Platform(s)
1996 Death Rally MS-DOS
2001 Max Payne Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, iOS, Android
2003 Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Microsoft Windows, Xbox, PlayStation 2
2010 Alan Wake Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
2011 Death Rally (Remake) iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows
2012 Alan Wake's American Nightmare Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
2014 Agents of Storm iOS
2016 Quantum Break Microsoft Windows, Xbox One

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Studio Profile: Remedy Entertainment". Edge. Future plc. 17 March 2013. Archived from the original on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  2. Niipola, Jani (3 June 2015). "Remedyn toimitusjohtaja Matias Myllyrinne siirtyy huippupestiin ulkomaille.". Kauppalehti (in Finnish). Alma Media. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  3. Siegler, Joe (July 17, 1998). "Remedy Entertainment & Lucasarts". 3D Realms. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
  4. "Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Announces Max Payne 2 Is In Development; Take-Two Purchases Max Payne Intellectual Property Rights". Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  5. Remedy Entertainment. Alan Wake. Microsoft Game Studios. Level/area: Episode 1.
  6. "Remedy is hiring". Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  7. Makuch, Eddie (April 2, 2015). "Xbox One's Quantum Break Delayed". GameSpot. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  8. Osborn, Alex (May 26, 2015). "Remedy Boss Leaves Alan Wake Developer To Form New Studios". IGN. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
  9. Purchese, Robert (June 3, 2015). "Remedy boss leaves after 15 years to join Wargaming". Retrieved June 3, 2015.

External links

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