Remedy’s previously announced free-to-play game is being rebooted as a premium title

After Alan Wake 2, all eyes are on Remedy, and the studio has plenty in store. It announced today that its previously announced project with Tencent will be rebooted with a few significant changes.

In 2021, it was announced that Remedy and Tencent are partnering up to make a free-to-play co-op title. Codenamed Vanguard, the game is being developed with the Unreal Engine instead of Remedy’s in-house Northlight engine, and there are plans to release it on PC and consoles.

With the reboot, the project has been renamed Kestrel. The change has been motivated by fears surrounding the rapidly changing free-to-play market. Though huge changes are being made, some elements remain, including the strong focus on multiplayer elements.

What do we know about Remedy’s project Kestrel?

We still don’t know much about the upcoming game. It has been previously stated that for the game’s first year of live operations, it will have a budget “in the range of a typical Remedy AAA game,” and Remedy and Tencent will be “responsible for their own publishing and game operating costs in their respective territories.”

The Alan Wake 2 studio had previously crafted a smaller internal team called Vanguard, and it was involved with the creation of Kestrel. The team’s webpage no longer exists, which should be expected, as it has been announced that part of the team will be shifted to other Remedy projects while the core leadership and select members of the team will focus on Kestrel‘s new direction.

In 2021, the game was in the proof-of-concept phase, and while advancements were made, with the reboot, the game has been pushed back to the concept phase. This means we’ll be waiting longer for the project to be completed, but this may be for the best, as the announcement claims that “the game will be built more around Remedy’s core competencies” which could result in a superior title.

This isn’t the only thing the Finnish studio is cooking up. There are upcoming remakes of Max Payne 1 and 2, and a Control sequel is also in the works. Alan Wake 2 hasn’t been forgotten, and there is DLC scheduled for it next year.