Treatment Leisure has spoken out to defend its publishing deal for Alan Wake 2, which noticed the sport launch on PC completely through the Epic Video games Retailer. Greater than two years later, there’s nonetheless no signal of it coming to rival storefront Steam.
Launched in October 2023, Alan Wake 2 took a 12 months to finally start producing royalties for Treatment, after ticking over the 2 million gross sales mark. Now, a debate has been sparked over its gross sales — which might undoubtedly be larger if it had additionally arrived on Steam, even when the sport solely exists due to Epic Video games money — in addition to the advantages of storefront exclusives.
Dialogue was sparked on social media by a prolonged thread from Michael Douse, director of publishing at Baldur’s Gate 3 and Divinity studio Larian. “I perceive Epic totally funded Alan Wake 2 however this altruistic pro-developer discuss does not sit properly when Treatment seemingly went into monetary disaster as a result of they could not faucet Steam for AW2 gross sales struggling probably tons of of hundreds of thousands in misplaced income,” Douse wrote.
“Not that they want the cash however a % take to Epic might’ve recouped dev prices + extra. Competitors is nice, and essential, however it’s troublesome to purchase the message when there are demonstrable circumstances of video games underperforming because of the tactic.”
Initially, Douse had been replying to a post by Epic Video games boss Tim Sweeney, who famous that “Epic and Steam compete for every buyer and every sale.” Sweeney continued: “On some transactions, Epic wins. On extra, Steam wins. However one factor is fixed on each transaction: avid gamers and builders win by having extra choices and higher offers.”
Persevering with his response, Douse characterised the Epic Video games’ ambitions for its PC storefront as resting on “their means to transform tons of of hundreds of thousands of Fortnite gamers into mid-hardcore premium avid gamers,” tempted by giveaways of free PC titles. “I do not see the Fortnite model trying to try this,” Douse continued. “So it is like 🤷♀️ Perhaps if there was a shit-hot Untreal Match.
“The Apple & Google shops spent a decade devaluing video games & apps to a degree the place it’s largely not possible to promote a premium sport there in a method that does not massively devalue it on different techniques. Giving everybody all the pieces at no cost may bump numbers however does not create a viable storefront from which to promote premium experiences.”
Douse’s thread caught the eye of Treatment itself, who then replied with the next statement:
“Hello. There can be no Alan Wake 2 with out Epic Publishing. The publishing cope with Epic was very reasonable to Treatment. Whereas these advanced offers can usually take even a 12 months to succeed in their conclusion, and will not at all times be honest to the developer, this one was. And it solely took months to get finished. Epic Video games was, and is, a wonderful companion to us. Steam or no Steam.”
For its subsequent sport, Management Resonant, Treatment has entered right into a partnership with Annapurna Photos that can see the corporate fund 50% of the event of the Management sequel, whereas Annapurna creates movie and TV spin-offs of Management and Alan Wake.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You may attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social