Remedy pushes back against Baldur’s Gate 3 dev’s criticism of Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and its game publishing — “There would be no Alan Wake 2 without Epic”

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Remedy Entertainment, the studio known for games like Max Payne, Control, and Alan Wake 2, has publicly supported Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney and Epic Games Publishing. This comes after criticism from Michael Douse, the publishing director of Larian Studios, the developers of Baldur’s Gate 3.

This week, Tim Sweeney of Epic Games explained that competition between the Epic Games Store and Steam is good for both game creators and players, as it leads to “more choices and better prices.” He made this point after seeing sales of the game Blood West jump 200% on Steam when it was offered as a free download on Epic.

Douse argued against this idea, explaining that even though Epic fully funded the development of Alan Wake 2, Remedy still faced significant financial difficulties. He believes this was likely due, at least in part, to their agreement with Epic to make the game exclusive to the Epic Games Store. By not releasing the game on Steam, Remedy missed out on a much larger potential audience and sales opportunities.

He criticized the seemingly generous support for developers, pointing out that Remedy ultimately lost potentially hundreds of millions of dollars as a result.

Remedy Entertainment has publicly supported Epic Games and Alan Sweeney. In a social media post on Thursday, they explained that Alan Wake 2 wouldn’t exist without Epic Publishing, and that the publishing agreement with Epic was beneficial to Remedy.

These kinds of complicated agreements usually take a long time – often a year or more – and aren’t always beneficial for the developer, but this deal was different. It was completed in just a few months. Epic Games has been, and continues to be, a great partner, regardless of Steam’s involvement.

Alan Wake 2 wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Epic Publishing. Remedy Entertainment received a very favorable publishing deal from Epic, which is unusual in the industry – these agreements often take a long time to negotiate and aren’t always beneficial for the developer. Thankfully, this deal came together quickly, in just a few months. [Link: https://t.co/UOPtuUdeYZ] – January 22, 2026

I want to clarify that my understanding of a “financial crisis” at Remedy isn’t based on guesswork. After their co-op shooter, *FBC: Firebreak*, didn’t perform well last summer, Remedy issued a warning in October that their profits wouldn’t meet expectations. They followed that up by stating they were unhappy with their financial results for the third quarter of 2025. Shortly after, their CEO, Tero Virtala, resigned from the company.

It took Alan Wake 2 about a year and a half after its release in 2023 to become profitable. The game started making money once it sold over 2 million copies on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation 5, which happened last February.

This debate has valid points on both sides, making it a complicated issue. Although Alan Wake 2 likely wouldn’t have been possible without Epic’s financial support, it probably would have sold significantly more copies if it had been released on Steam. The Epic Games Store simply doesn’t have as many monthly users – around 55 to 60% – compared to Valve’s Steam platform.

It’s worth considering whether Remedy would have had trouble finding a publisher if not for Epic. After the critical and commercial success of Control in 2019 – widely praised as a top narrative adventure game – you’d expect them to have attracted funding easily. However, it’s possible they attempted to secure funding elsewhere and were unsuccessful before partnering with Epic.

This situation highlights ongoing criticisms of the Epic Games Store. Many users feel it’s missing essential features like user reviews, community forums for discussion, and the ability to preload games before release. In fact, it took three years after its launch for the store to even include a basic shopping cart.

Steam has offered these features for a long time, and continues to do so. If Epic Games prioritized improving the user experience of its platform, more players might choose it for games like Alan Wake 2.

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2026-01-23 00:40