Remedy Entertainment and Tencent have just announced the cancelation of their game project that was codenamed Kestrel. Project Kestrel had a small team working on the early concept stage of a premium cooperative multiplayer game.
The game was being developed by Remedy, co-financed with Tencent, and to be co-published with Tencent. The project started in November 2023 as a reboot from an earlier project codenamed Vanguard.
According to the press release, the decision to cancel codename Kestrel will allow Remedy to focus more on the other games in its portfolio. Other ongoing game development projects will get experienced developers reassigned from Kestrel. In addition, the planned investment needs for Kestrel are removed and Remedy’s overall recruitment needs are reduced.
Remedy’s CEO Tero Virtala said:
“Codename Kestrel showed early promise, but the project was still in its early concept stage. Our other projects have advanced well and are moving to the next stages of development, and increasing focus on them provides us with benefits. We can reallocate talented Kestrel developers to these other game projects, and many of our support functions get additional focus on their operations. This is yet another means to ensure that our game projects continue advancing well. I want to thank our Kestrel development team. Though we decided to discontinue the project for wider Remedy benefits, our team has done good work and provided us with valuable learnings. I also want to thank Tencent for their partnership so far. They have been very professional and supportive.”
In my opinion, this is good news. Remedy is a studio that has been focusing on single-player games. That’s its DNA and that’s what it knows to do best. And while a multiplayer game would provide the team with some extra revenue, it would put a lot of pressure on it.
It’s also worth noting that according to previous reports, Alan Wake 2 hasn’t earned back yet its cost. Remedy has stated that the game’s sales are better than those of CONTROL. So, in theory, the game should be profitable in the foreseeable future.
Stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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