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Remedy cancels Project Kestrel and will focus on existing franchises

Dazraell

Member
remedy-new-logo.png

Codename Kestrel cancelled as Remedy focuses on existing franchises

Remedy Entertainment Plc (“Remedy”) and Tencent Plc (“Tencent”) have decided to cancel the game project codename Kestrel. Codename Kestrel had a small team working on the early concept stage of a premium cooperative multiplayer game. The game was being developed by Remedy, co-financed with Tencent, and to be co-published with Tencent. The project started in November 2023 as a reboot from an earlier project codenamed Vanguard.

The decision to cancel codename Kestrel allows Remedy to focus more on the other games in its portfolio. Other ongoing game development projects will get experienced developers reassigned from Kestrel. In addition, the planned investment needs for Kestrel are removed and Remedy’s overall recruitment needs are reduced.

“Codename Kestrel showed early promise, but the project was still in its early concept stage. Our other projects have advanced well and are moving to the next stages of development, and increasing focus on them provides us with benefits. We can reallocate talented Kestrel developers to these other game projects, and many of our support functions get additional focus on their operations. This is yet another means to ensure that our game projects continue advancing well. I want to thank our Kestrel development team. Though we decided to discontinue the project for wider Remedy benefits, our team has done good work and provided us with valuable learnings. I also want to thank Tencent for their partnership so far. They have been very professional and supportive,” says Remedy’s CEO Tero Virtala.
Source
 

Polygonal_Sprite

Gold Member
Good, we have enough devs doing multiplayer stuff, Remedy should focus on what they're good at.
Totally agree. You’d think publishers would realise people only have so much time in a day for entertainment and Fortnite, Warzone, GTA V, Genshin, Minecraft and LoL all dominate so much of that particular market.

Make a good semi linear single player narrative game in the same vein of God of War 2018 and you can sell 15 million copies at $50 (roughly $600 million revenue) without going full open world and tripling your dev budget.
 

Embearded

Member
I see it says just co op, not GaaS and shit, so maybe we are losing something good.
They should stay away from the GaaS trap though, AW2 supposedly hasn't broken even yet.

Maybe they need to make a couple small titles, more focused on the good parts of AW2 and avoid expenses like high budget voice actors and external advisors.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
Totally agree. You’d think publishers would realise people only have so much time in a day for entertainment and Fortnite, Warzone, GTA V, Genshin, Minecraft and LoL all dominate so much of that particular market.
Here’s how the top management looks at it:

I succeed: I’m a visionary that changes the paradigm of a market, and made millions.
I fail: I bravely spearheaded an innovative project to take on the industry’s giants

It’s all hubris.
 

tronied

Member
This comment is not linked to this cancelled project but to Remedy in general as they can't seem to catch a break. They do make very good games, though I have no experience with Alan Wake 2 so that may be an exception. I was hoping that since they'd branched out onto Playstation they'd have more financial success, but the same lacklustre sales and disinterest seemed to follow.

Maybe it's a good idea for them to follow known franchises which have proven lucrative / successful in the past. It's just a shame that every new thing they try (aside from the good reviews) seem to be met with little to no commercial success. They are a very talented group of people and wish them success, so I hope these setbacks don't damage their creativity and ambitions.
 

tommib

Gold Member
Where is my Alan Wake 2 DLC from the special edition that I got? Any news on that? Would be cool to get some closure and get the guy out of the dark place.
 

midnightAI

Member
Good, we have enough devs doing multiplayer stuff, Remedy should focus on what they're good at.
They are making a multiplayer Control game (Project Condor)

(Why do AA/AAA devs keep revealing games that don't even have a proper name and are just in the concept/prototype stage? They know full well that during prototyping they can come across issues which means the game isn't feasible in one form or another. With indies it doesn't matter so much)
 

Dazraell

Member
(Why do AA/AAA devs keep revealing games that don't even have a proper name and are just in the concept/prototype stage? They know full well that during prototyping they can come across issues which means the game isn't feasible in one form or another. With indies it doesn't matter so much)
These internal names are for investors, they're using these names to refer to what is an exact status of projects on their quarterly reports. You don't see this on indies as majority of them aren't publicly traded companies
 

midnightAI

Member
These internal names are for investors, they're using these names to refer to what is an exact status of projects on their quarterly reports. You don't see this on indies as majority of them aren't publicly traded companies
Yes, I know that, but that doesn't need to be a public announcement. (most don't announce them, that's why I find it funny when people criticise game devs for cancelling games at this stage when normally they wouldn't even know the game even exists and prototypes get cancelled/shelved/repurposed all the time, we just don't hear about it. Indies are different, we like to show what we are working on at an early stage as many times we like the community involved for feedback, encouragement, praise etc)
 
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Dazraell

Member
Yes, I know that, but that doesn't need to be a public announcement. (most don't announce them, that's why I find it funny when people criticise game devs for cancelling games at this stage when normally they wouldn't even know the game even exists and prototypes get cancelled/shelved/repurposed all the time, we just don't hear about it. Indies are different, we like to show what we are working on at an early stage as many times we like the community involved for feedback, encouragement, praise etc)
Well, if you're publicly traded company, each of your announcements will become public as you have to publish your reports online. These news about Remedy doesn't come from announcements they make on press releases, social media or whatever, these are things they're obligated to share to their investors

If you think about it, it's hard to have quarterly meetings with your investors by saying "we spent X money on one of our unnannounced projects, but we can't say on which, as you know it's not announced yet" and convincing people to invest in them if they can't even read basic stuff how company is spending their finances. Larger publishers doesn't have that problem as they have a huge stream of projects and they can refer to them in their financial reports by segregating them to publishing labels, but with companies like Remedy or CDP Red, their project input is significantly smaller and you need to have something you can refer to in your financial reports so they could associate data with these codenames without compromising the fact these projects aren't "officially" announced yet. That's why they're using worktitles
 

midnightAI

Member
Well, if you're publicly traded company, each of your announcements will become public as you have to publish your reports online. These news about Remedy doesn't come from announcements they make on press releases, social media or whatever, these are things they're obligated to share to their investors

If you think about it, it's hard to have quarterly meetings with your investors by saying "we spent X money on one of our unnannounced projects, but we can't say on which, as you know it's not announced yet" and convincing people to invest in them if they can't even read basic stuff how company is spending their finances. Larger publishers doesn't have that problem as they have a huge stream of projects and they can refer to them in their financial reports by segregating them to publishing labels, but with companies like Remedy or CDP Red, their project input is significantly smaller and you need to have something you can refer to in your financial reports so they could associate data with these codenames without compromising the fact these projects aren't "officially" announced yet. That's why they're using worktitles
They did announce them officially/publicly though, they even had their own webpages (Kestrel has been taken down). My point is they didn't have to do that, they could have just sat as some project names on an investor/quarterly earnings report.

 
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I can't picture them doing a traditional multiplayer anyway, maybe a coop game that would still be story driven.

If they can get Max Payne to the level of Mafia DE, it could be special.
 

Dazraell

Member
They did announce them officially/publicly though, they even had their own webpages (Kestrel has been taken down). My point is they didn't have to do that, they could have just sat as some project names on an investor/quarterly earnings report.

Again, your point is why they are listing these projects without "officially" revealing them aka without having a marketing campaign and official presentation. Condor is not an official name of this game, it'll most likely be "FBC Firebreak" as that's the name Remedy has trademarked earlier this year. This game will most likely be properly revealed either later this year or next year as it was in development for a while
 
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midnightAI

Member
Again, your point is why they are listing these projects without "officially" revealing them aka without having a marketing campaign and official presentation. Condor is not an official name of this game, it'll most likely be "FBC Firebreak" as that's the name Remedy has trademarked earlier this year. This game will most likely be properly revealed either later this year or next year as it was in development for a while
Well, maybe, but my point is did they have to create websites? did they have to tell us that Project Kestrel is a reimagining of another project they worked on called Project Vanguard? did they have to tell us that Project Condor is a multiplayer Control? Maybe they do, but I'd presume the most they would have to say is we are working several unannounced games, maybe it is something to do with being a publicly traded company and they cant be that vague

Edit: oh and to the several posts above this...... they are still working on a multiplayer game.... Project Condor
 
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Dazraell

Member
Well, maybe, but my point is did they have to create websites? did they have to tell us that Project Kestrel is a reimagining of another project they worked on called Project Vanguard? did they have to tell us that Project Condor is a multiplayer Control? Maybe they do, but I'd presume the most they would have to say is we are working several unannounced games, maybe it is something to do with being a publicly traded company and they cant be that vague
Again, these type of stuff aren't targeted to mainstream gamers, but to investors. And considering they're publicly traded company, anyone can be their potential investor and invest in their company, it's in their interest to have news about the state of their projects in quarterly reports and listed on their official page so these investors would have a point of reference. I think it's pretty straightforward
 

midnightAI

Member
Again, these type of stuff aren't targeted to mainstream gamers, but to investors. And considering they're publicly traded company, anyone can be their potential investor and invest in their company, it's in their interest to have news about the state of their projects in quarterly reports and listed on their official page so these investors would have a point of reference. I think it's pretty straightforward
Sorry, that's my bad, I thought they publically just announced these 'projects' as the news was in loads of places and didnt just come from their investor page:
eg.


But they do all seem to lead back to Remedy's investor pages
 
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Dazraell

Member
Sorry, that's my bad, I thought they publically just announced these 'projects' as the news was in loads of places and didnt just come from their investor page:
eg.


But they do all seem to lead back to Remedy's investor pages
I know this may sound confusing, but I guess it's beneficial for people who like to follow updates on these games. A lot of news about CDPR also comes from their investor meetings / quarterly reports. I also like to follow reports on a few other companies who does the same things as their investor reports has a lot of interesting stuff that aren't part of the usual marketing cycle
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
They are making a multiplayer Control game (Project Condor)

(Why do AA/AAA devs keep revealing games that don't even have a proper name and are just in the concept/prototype stage? They know full well that during prototyping they can come across issues which means the game isn't feasible in one form or another. With indies it doesn't matter so much)

Yeah, I wish they weren't doing that one either.
 
With the uncertainty in the game business, all the studios are focusing on established brands. That's why Naughty Dog is making none other than The Last of Us Part III.
 
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