On Steam when?
I’ll admit, AW2 has been a hard sell for me. Paranormal mystery always is, because it wants to invite you to ask questions, but it can pull answers literally out of anywhere. Why doesn’t anyone remember old events? Paranormal magic. How did Alan Wake survive at the bottom of a lake for all those years? Paranormal magic. Etcetera.
I don’t even mind games like Ace Attorney that set up a paranormal system like spirit channeling, but cleanly express all their rules and limits before they become involved in the mystery. I’ve watched some partial streams of AW2 but it felt so easy to get lost and have no expectations for it to suddenly defy.
I am currently playing through it, and it has some of the best moments gaming has to offer. You don’t normally see such a specific voice in games narratives these days. I have been really enjoying it.
So unlucky that 2023 was brimming with awesome games so AW2 had to compete with them all. Winning best narrative awards against BG3 was remarkable, and I honestly think it was well earned. Yet it got little to no exposure - only 1.6mil sales over a year and a half? It’s a 16mil game no doubt.
If you’re only for sale on an actively user hostile storefront, you get what you get.
The only reason AW2 happened at all is because Epic paid for its development. Hate on the Epic store all you want (it deserves a lot of it), but it’s one of the few instances where it actually makes perfect sense that it’s an exclusive.
Except it’s a strong demonstration that even epic paying for your game won’t make your money back on a well made game if you lock it to a disgusting excuse for a storefront.
It would have been better for the studio not to make the game. It’s identical for the majority of gamers as them not making the game. They still haven’t broken even because they made a bad, anti-consumer decision. They failed because they deserved to fail.
Trivia: Mr. Door actor David Harewood later appointed as the president of the Royal Fucking Academy of Dramatic Art.