alan-wake posts

Alan Wake was first announced and demoed at E3 2005 as a PC game by Finland developer Remedy. In 2006 Microsoft got the publishing rights and announced that the horror-themed action-adventure game would come to the Xbox 360 as well as the PC. Then came the three year cone of silence that surrounded the game. Remedy and Microsoft finally demoed the game at E3 2009 but on an Xbox 360 console and refused to comment on the PC version.

In early 2010 Microsoft finally confirmed that there would not be a PC port of Alan Wake saying that they felt the game was best played "from the couch in front of a larger TV screen." This week at GDC 2011 during a panel on Alan Wake Computer and Video Games asked Remedy's head man Markus Maki about the canceled PC port. However Maki still is keeping most of the reasons close to the chest, saying, "I can't really discuss that. I will say that it wasn't a technological call. And it wasn't made in Finland."

PC gamers were nearly universal in slamming Microsoft's decision to cancel previously announced plans to bring Alan Wake to the PC. Now Oskari Häkkinen, of the game's developer Remedy, states that the real reason why a PC port of the upcoming Xbox 360 action-adventure game was canceled.

Chatting with VG247.com, Häkkinen (kind of) refutes the reason Microsoft gave for the PC version's cancellation where it implied that Alan Wake was better played on a sofa in front of a TV. So what's the real reason? Häkkinen states, " . . . we're a small studio. We're 50 people, and being a small studio, it makes a lot more sense for us to focus on one platform:" And what about a PC port at some time in the future? He says, " I think that's a decision to sit down [and make] with our publisher... and see where the title goes."

Alan Wake may have begun its life as a PC game but now its publisher Microsoft has apparently confirmed that the long awaited action title from Remedy Entertainment will now be an Xbox 360 exclusive with no plans at all to bring the game to the PC.

An official statement from Microsoft, posted at Strategy Informer, states that the publisher felt that the game was best suited to be played "from the couch in front of a larger TV screen". Alan Wake was first announced as a PC game by Remedy in 2005. In 2006 Microsoft bought the publishing rights to the game, saying it would appear on both the PC and Xbox 360 consoles. After that the game's development went into an extended stealth mode until 2009 when Microsoft finally started promoting Alan Wake again but as an Xbox 360 exclusive. Last July Remedy said the decision to make the game for the PC was up to Microsoft.

Even though we have a few more weeks before 2009 ends, events in 2010 are prepping for their new editions. The DICE Summit, the high-end game development conference, have announced the first speakers for the Las Vegas-based event. The conference will be held from February 17-19, 2010 at the Red Rock Resort.

Among the speakers announced so far is Matias Myllrinne, the president of Remedy Entertainment, and Steve Perlman, the CEO of the streaming gaming company OnLive. In addition to speeches, panels, and the annual Interactive Achievement Awards (hosted for the fifth year in a row by comedian Jay Mohr), the DICE Summit will also announce the winners of the $100,000 Indie Games Challenge.

Long before their Max Payne games and well before their current work on their Xbox 360 exclusive (maybe) game Alan Wake, developer Remedy released their first title; a car combat title called Death Rally that was published by Apogee in 1996. Now it looks like Remedy is looking to revive the game in a small fashion.

A recent trademark filing by Remedy states they want the use of the Death Rally name for "computer game software." The Escapist has posted up quotes from Remedy's Oskari Häkkinen who states, "With Death Rally we're looking at getting something neat out to the community by having a version that is playable on modern PCs out there." it sounds like that Remedy wants to get the original game, and not really a remake or a graphical revamp, out there to the public. Might we suggest GoG.com as a starting point, Remedy?

The long, long awaited action-thriller game Alan Wake from Remedy was first shown as a PC game in 2005 and was announced as coming to the PC when Microsoft came in as a publisher in 2006. However with the game's re-appearance last month at E3 Microsoft and Remedy have only talked about the game showing up on the Xbox 360 platform.

Today several fan sites, including Brightfalls.net, received an official statement from Remedy stating that Alan Wake is currently being made only for the Xbox 360 at this point. The note added, "Remedy has a deep heritage in PC gaming and would love to see a PC version available to its PC followers, ultimately however this decision lies with our publisher." It's important to note that Microsoft does have a history of releasing PC ports of many of their Xbox and Xbox 360 games including Halo, Halo 2, Gears of War, Fable and others so folks should not automatically assume that an Alan Wake PC port is dead.

When we posted up our Alan Wake impressions from E3 last month, we noted that the Remedy folks who demoed the Xbox 360 build of the game to the press were not commenting on the previously announced PC version that day. That silence is apparently continuing.

In a response to a post asking about the PC version, Remedy's Markus Maki states, "I'm a PC gamer at heart (have a Core i7, Radeon 4890, 5.1 audio setup at home) so I do appreciate your concerns. Unfortunately all I can say at this point is that we're focusing all our efforts on the 360 version and will be making comments in regards to the PC at a later in time." While that doesn't mean Alan Wake is never coming to the PC it does likely mean that the port won't be released in the Xbox 360's time frame of spriing 2010.

It's been a long wait to see what Alan Wake has been doing with himself. The writer first appeared to us in the press at E3 2005 in the game of the same name. That demo, at the ATI booth, has been the only live demonstration shown to the public . . . until this week, that is. Now four years later we got to see yet another live demo of the game (this time at publisher Microsoft's booth) and we think that the four year wait might actually be worth it.

Developer Remedy wanted to mess with the heads of gamers as Alan Wake has to deal with the fact that his supernatual-themed book is coming to life all around him in a Pacific Northwest town. He also has to deal with the kidnapping of his wife Alice by folks who want the manuscript for this new novel. The only problem? Alan doesn't even remember writing anything about it.

Microsoft's E3 2009 press event had members of Remedy on stage as they gave a live demo of Alan Wake. It was the first live public footage that was shown from the game since it was first announced at E3 2005 (yep, four years ago). It was announced that the game will be coming sometime in the spring of 2010.

The footage showed writer Alan Wake exploring the forest area of Bright Falls and dealing with a lot of supernatural threats; from invisible hands throwing objects like cars to strange people-like things that seem to look like ghostd but a lot scarier. The graphics look solid, especially in terms of lighting and the use of light and dark to create a creepy experience.

E3 2009 is getting closer and closer. And with the countdown continuing so do the rumors of what will be revealed at the show. One such rumor-filled source is a Twitter account called Game Fork who has been updating with info on what will be revealed at Microsoft's pre-E3 event on June 1

According to the page, you can expect to see Remedy's four-years-in-the-making action-adventure game Alan Wake come out of its full stealth mode at Microsoft's E3 event. Also due for a full reveal, according to Game Fork, is All Points Bulletin, the long-in-development urban action MMO from developer Real Time Worlds. Assassin's Creed 2, BioShock 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction are also planned to be shown in some form at the event. If this source happens to be on the ball, Microsoft's E3 press conference should be of interest to PC gamers as well.

[Via Gamespot]