Like many people, I am very endeared to Remedy Entertainment. It makes intensely creative video games, pushing boundaries while serving up the unexpected and utterly unique. Remedy is a studio I desperately want to see succeed and stick around for a long time, especially after the excellent Alan Wake 2, which would have won a lot more Game of the Year awards if it hadn’t had the misfortune of being released in the same year as Baldur’s Gate 3.
A Live-Service Game Is A Live-Service Game
But FBC: Firebreak, Remedy’s first online multiplayer game, is releasing in a particularly terrible time for online multiplayer games. In a market filled with established, popular free-to-play live-service games like Fortnite, Apex Legends and Overwatch 2, it’s hard enough to launch a successful free-to-play game with all this competition, let alone a multiplayer game you have to pay for, and Firebreak will not be free-to-play.
Marvel Rivals feels more like an exception than a change in fortunes, and is buoyed by a massively popular IP.
Paid multiplayer games were either big hits or catastrophic misses in 2024. We saw Helldivers 2 hit completely unexpected heights, becoming a Steam top-seller and performing so well that it surprised even Sony. Then Concord hit – at the same price point, mind you – and flopped so hard that it was quickly pulled from storefronts and the developer was shut down. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League fared similarly poorly, though lasted a little longer. It’s hard to say what Firebreak’s chances of success are, given that we’ve seen somewhat similar games both succeed and fail abysmally.
Will Launching On Subscription Services Save FBC Firebreak?
We’ve known for a while that Remedy would be releasing FBC: Firebreak on both PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass on day one, but a recent GamesRadar interview revealed more of the thinking behind that. Remedy communications director Thomas Puha said, “This lowers the barrier of entry to try out the game, since millions of Game Pass and PlayStation Plus subscribers will have access.” He also added, “It also means there’s financial backing and marketing support for the game from both first parties, which is crucial – especially as Remedy is self-publishing this game across all platforms.”
It looks like Firebreak is avoiding a lot of the issues that led to the failure of similar games, Concord in particular. Concord was criticised for its lack of originality, but from what we’ve seen of Firebreak, it looks like a fun co-op experience based in an existing world that in itself is really cool and already familiar to existing fans of Control. Concord wasn’t able to get players interested enough to pay for a copy, but Firebreak is bypassing that by putting it on subscription services many players already use regularly.
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This should help to keep it from completely burning out within its first few weeks, but I’m not sure it’ll be enough. Yes, it’ll likely have more players at launch, which will in turn help it generate more word of mouth, but there’s the obvious problem that these subscription services cannibalise sales. Firebreak isn’t following typical live-service trends of aggressive monetisation, so how is it going to make enough money to justify its development?
It’s all very up in the air right now, and there’s no way of knowing whether launching on subscription services will be enough to keep Firebreak from flopping like so many others did last year. For all we know, it could end up being a hit on the level of Helldivers 2. But any live-service game is a huge risk at this point in time, and I would hate to see this be a huge hit to Remedy’s health as a studio.
FBC: Firebreak is a cooperative first-person shooter set within a mysterious federal agency under assault by otherworldly forces. As a years-long siege on the agency’s headquarters reaches its boiling point, only Firebreak— the Bureau’s most versatile unit—has the gear and the guts to plunge into the building’s strangest crises, restore order, and blast their way back from the brink.
Paranatural Pandemonium
Dive into the Federal Bureau of Control’s (FBC) unpredictable and extradimensional headquarters during its darkest—and strangest—hours. As one of the FBC’s fearless first responders, you and your team are on call to confront everything from reality-warping anomalies to otherworldly monsters… no matter the odds. Will you contain the chaos or finally lose control?
Cooperative Chaos
Join forces with friends or strangers to tackle each mission as a well-oiled crew. Survival in this three-player cooperative FPS hinges on quick thinking and seamless teamwork as you scramble to tame raging paranatural crises across a variety of unexpected locations. Improve your odds by utilizing the tools and skills that make you unique or improvising with whatever’s on hand to support your crew.
Beyond Bullets
Before deploying, select your weapon and customize your Firebreaker’s Crisis Kit with specialized tools, grenades, support items, and paranatural augments… then modify them to suit your strategy and change the way you play. Experiment with different loadouts to perfect your playstyle and synergize with your team, giving you the edge to succeed in every mission, no matter the difficulty.
The Federal Bureau of Control
Return to the strange and unexpected world of Control or venture in for the first time in this standalone, multiplayer experience. Discover the iconic and unfathomable headquarters of the FBC — the Oldest House — from an entirely new perspective as a team of volunteer first responders with nothing but gear and guts to bring the Bureau back from the brink.