Remedy Says Control Sales Are Steady, Denies Rumors of Xbox Game Pass Release
Robert Workman
For the most part, AAA games these days have very modest budgets, so that development teams can get the most out of what they have in mind for their projects. However, Remedy Entertainment took a slightly different route with its latest game, Control.
Tero Virtala, who serves as the CEO for the team, recently spoke with GamesIndustry International about its latest release, and how its budget wasn’t as extravagant as, say, Quantum Break.
“Control was developed in three years with a budget of less than €30 million,” Virtala said. “We don’t quite require the same huge lifetime numbers as many other games with bigger development budgets.”
That said, the game has been performing up to expectations, despite being an entirely new IP. “Even though Control didn’t have chart-topping sales right from the get-go, we are in a good position with steady sales,” Virtala said. “We always take the long view here.”
Virtala went into more detail about these expectations. “Nowadays, the majority of sales for many games are generated over a long period of time in digital stores—and Control continues to sell, which is good. We are bringing more free and paid content to the game. It has the proven high-quality and uniqueness, and the word-of-mouth that keeps growing. There is still a big audience out there that hasn’t yet heard of Control. These are all factors that support the longer-term sales.”
This pours into potential rumors that the game could join the Xbox Game Pass before the year is out, first started by the Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer himself. “I thought Control was really good, it didn’t reach enough people, so I’m glad to see it’s coming in to Game Pass, so hopefully more people play it,” he said on a recent ExtraLife Mixer stream (see 44:02 for the remark). Remedy quickly took to Twitter to set the record straight, though.
The information about Control coming to Xbox Game Pass as reported on a recent Mixer stream is incorrect. We have no news or announcements regarding Xbox Game Pass at this time.
— Control (@ControlRemedy) December 5, 2019
Regardless, Virtala is still happy with the success the game has received, mainly through positive feedback from players and critics alike. “Strategically, it has been highly important that we have succeeded in establishing a new brand. In our industry, this is very challenging: new games come every now and then, but very few break through and become something special. It is of course still very early days, but Control is showing good signs of establishing itself and having a growing fan base.”
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