Remedy Entertainment’s newly-appointed CEO, Jean-Charles Gaudechon, believes that Alan Wake and Control “should have sold more” and have a bigger commercial impact.
Speaking to The Game Business, Gaudechon, a former EA executive who joined Remedy as CEO in February, explained his aspirations for the studio moving forward. The CEO says that, while he wants Remedy to continue making the games it has become known for, the studio “could make some improvements” to find a wider audience.
“Now after seeing it from the inside, there’s so much more we can give in terms of super strong authored, creative, crazy stories and gameplay,” Gaudechon said. His vision, then, is to think bigger for some of the studio’s IPs, which “need to find [their] audience much, much further than the current audience.”
This, in part, will be driven by Remedy’s transmedia projects. The studio announced a partnership with Annapurna Pictures back in 2024, which saw the company covering 50 percent of Control 2’s development budget. In turn, it obtained the rights to “expand” Control and Alan Wake into film, TV, and “selected audiovisuals.”
“Annapurna goes into making our games, our franchises shine further and reach an audience that doesn’t exist today,” Gaudechon told The Game Business.
“To me, that’s one of the first things we need to fix, even before trying to make more games to a certain extent. First of all, maximize the potential of the ones we have, because they’re incredible. And cross-media is going to help us do that.”
When the new CEO was appointed, he said he intends to help Remedy scale in a way that “builds lasting value.” In a recent earnings Q&A, the CEO appraised the current situation at the studio, which recently shelved multiplayer shooter FBC: Firebreak after it failed to attract players.
“The team and the studio has done excellent work to stay on track. Has done excellent work to build a triple-A game on a relatively small budget. That’s something we’ve seen from Remedy before. That’s something we’ll see again from Remedy,” said Gaudechon.
Now, the CEO says he’s focused on bringing Control Resonant to market, while also acknowledging that he has seen “parts of Remedy I think can be improved at many different levels,” saying that there “will be changes here or there […] which will help the studio perform even better in the future.”
Gaudechon has also identified growth opportunities in China and other markets across Asia, adding that Remedy is working with “local partners” to better serve consumers in those regions. This echoes his recent conversation with The Game Business regarding the desire to find new audiences.
“While our core markets remain a priority, we also want more players around the world to experience Remedy’s games,” he added.