Control 2’s Genre Shift May Be a Risk Worth Taking After Alan Wake 2

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 15, 2025 8 Views 6 Min Read
Control 2's Genre Shift May Be a Risk Worth Taking After Alan Wake 2



Remedy Entertainment has always been known as a studio that likes to do things its own way. While that strive for individuality can lead to groundbreaking successes like Max Payne, it can also lead to games that don’t quite hit the mark with critics or audiences, such as Quantum Break. But Remedy’s willingness to always take the risks and follow its heart is a core reason why die-hard fans keep coming back time and time again, and it’s why they’re already eagerly awaiting Control 2‘s launch day.

Confirmed to have entered full production back in August 2024, Control 2 is well on the way now, and Remedy has continued to be surprisingly upfront about the status of the sequel. This includes the confirmation that Control 2 is making a slight genre shift, and given Alan Wake 2‘s commercial reception, that shift might be for the best.

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Control 2 Must Nail What the Original Missed the Mark On

Despite its many noteworthy features and engaging gameplay elements, the original Control missed the mark on one major feature that the sequel cannot.

Control 2’s Genre Shift Might Be For The Best

Control 2’s Genre Shift Is a Big Risk

During Remedy Entertainment’s Capital Markets Day presentation back in November 2024, it was confirmed that Control 2 will be an action-RPG. According to Remedy itself, the original Control was categorized as an action-adventure game, which suggests that the upcoming sequel will include more elements associated with the role-playing genre, such as deeper skill trees, maybe some kind of loot or gear system, and potentially some kind of choice-based narrative, though that’s all purely speculation at this point.

The original Control has managed to build quite a strong and dedicated fan-base in the years following its 2019 release. Though different fans will have many different reasons behind their love for the game, Control‘s action-adventure gameplay is likely something that resonated with most. If Control 2 changes that formula too heavily, then it might risk alienating fans of the first game.

Control 2’s Genre Shift Might Be a Risk That Needs to be Taken

But in the grand scheme of things, Control 2‘s genre shift might be a risk that Remedy simply needs to take. Alan Wake 2 received critical acclaim upon its October 2023 debut, and it quickly became the fastest-selling game in Remedy’s long history. But despite this incredibly positive reception and the game’s initial sales, Alan Wake 2 is far from the major success it should be.

Back in March 2024, Remedy CEO Tero Virtala stated in a Business Review that Remedy had made back a “significant part” of Alan Wake 2‘s development and marketing costs. Eight months later, in November 2024, Virtala confirmed that Alan Wake 2 had recouped “most” of its costs. This means that over a year after launch, Alan Wake 2 still hadn’t broken even, let alone made a profit.

Of course, Alan Wake 2 is far from a disappointment or failure for Remedy, but it isn’t an unprecedented success either, and those stats must be playing on the minds of some Remedy higher-ups. Though Remedy hasn’t confirmed this to be the case, it’s possible that Alan Wake 2‘s commercial reception is one of the reasons Control 2 is shifting genres. This is evidenced by Remedy’s Capital Markets Day presentation, which stated that Control 2 has the “potential to attract new players from the genre,” seemingly confirming that the sequel’s genre shift is at least in part an attempt to draw in a wider audience.

That being said, Control 2 fans probably don’t need to worry about the sequel changing too much about what they loved from the original. During the same Capital Markets Day presentation, Remedy’s Sam Lake stated “We strive to create commercial hits,” but quickly followed up with “Games are ambitious, passionate, works of creative expression” and “What we create at Remedy is special, and we must never lose that.”

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