Jean-Charles Gaudechon, the newly appointed chief executive at Remedy, has remarked that the studio’s key franchises, including Alan Wake and Control, “should have sold more”.
The appointment of Jean-Charles Gaudechon as Remedy’s leader came in March, causing raised eyebrows among supporters of the studio’s offbeat single-player fare. His resume includes nearly five years at EA, with a particular focus on the PC and mobile versions of FIFA. Since that time, he has worked on various sport-related ventures, including two years running a fantasy NFL platform.
During a fresh interview with The Game Business, Gaudechon admitted to some of the skepticism surrounding his past while noting that Remedy’s “one-of-a-kind” creativity needed to be “protected.” Simultaneously, he indicated the company “could make some improvements” to ensure its work found a wider audience.
“Remedy is one of the few studios which is genuinely supported by players,” Gaudechon said. “Even my announcement was something I loved, because people were protecting Remedy. When I was announced, people from the industry and close friends sent me messages saying things like: ‘JC, that’s awesome. Congrats.’ And the last line was, ‘Don’t f*** it up.’ It was: ‘We love Remedy so much. Don’t f*** it up.’ That shows you how much people love Remedy.”
During the last five years, Remedy has put out many games, yet none have emerged as breakout successes. The studio’s multiplayer venture, FBC: Firebreak, ended in failure. Sales for Alan Wake 2 were sluggish, resulting in the title taking over a year to generate a profit. Reviews for its work on the Korean shooter CrossfireX campaign were poor. Furthermore, the Max Payne and Max Payne 2 remakes, which have been in development for a long time, were announced four years ago with no visibility since.
For the immediate future, the studio is focusing on Control Resonant, the sequel to 2019’s well-received Control that’s currently due at some point this year. Gaudechon noted that Remedy’s franchises need a bigger audience, something its strategic partnership with Annapurna for TV and film adaptations announced back in 2024 will hopefully provide.
“Control, Alan Wake, etc. could give a lot more,” Gaudechon said. “There’s a vision on thinking bigger for some of these IPs, which need to find its audience much, much further than the current audience. It’s super exciting.”
“We need to think more about how we are approaching our IPs as a franchise,” he continued. “How do we grow the community? [Our deal with] Annapurna goes into making our games, our franchises shine further and reach an audience that doesn’t exist today.”
“It’s a pity, I think Alan Wake should have sold more. Control should have sold more. To me, that’s one of the first things we need to fix, even before trying to make more games to a certain extent. First of all, maximize the potential of the ones we have, because they’re incredible. And cross-media is going to help us do that.”
