Remedy Entertainment
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Headquarters | Espoo, Finland |
| Products | Alan Wake Death Rally Max Payne Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne |
Number of employees | 40 (2011)[1] |
| Website | www.remedygames.com |
Remedy Entertainment is a Finnish computer game developer founded in 1995 and based in Espoo, Finland. The company is best known for its Max Payne and Alan Wake series of video games.
History
In 1997, Remedy created a program called Final Reality, a 3D benchmark program. In November 1997, Remedy created a new company that would handle its 3D benchmark program called Futuremark. That program would turn into 3DMark, a popular 3D benchmark program that determines the performance of a video card with the latest graphics.
Before forming Remedy, four of the founding members were in the demoscene group Future Crew.[2] Originally there was some industry speculation that Remedy was made up entirely of Future Crew members, but this was dismissed by Joe Siegler of partner-company 3D Realms.[3]
In 1998, LucasArts approached Remedy Entertainment, citing that their logo was copied from the top portion of the LucasArts logo and threatening legal action.[4] Remedy was by that time already in the process of redesigning their logo, so they complied by taking the old logo offline from their website and introducing a new logo a little later.
The Max Payne series of games are based on the character Max Payne and his living nightmare through New York City. Payne is a fugitive undercover cop who is framed for murder and hunted by the NYPD and the mob. The Max Payne series is best known for popularizing bullet-time in a video game as well as being influenced by film noir. In 2002, Remedy sold all rights to Max Payne to Take-Two Interactive for US$10 million and 969,932 shares of stock.[5]
In 2010 Remedy released a new IP for Microsoft called Alan Wake. It was released for Xbox 360 on May 18, 2010.[6] The game was published by Microsoft Game Studios. Remedy have recently re-released Death Rally for the IOS.
Remedy's next project will be an Xbox Live Arcade title based around Alan Wake, named Alan Wake's American Nightmare. The game was officially unveiled at Spike's Video Game Awards 2011 Prior to the announcement, Remedy were forced to defend their decision to not make the game a full retail release, as they received backlash from disappointed fans. Remedy had asked fans “to wait for the official announcement before making up your mind”, adding that “it’s structured like a full release complete with a pretty damn impressive storyline that expands the originals in some interesting ways.”[7]
Video games developed
| Game title | Year of release | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Death Rally | 1996 | MS-DOS |
| 2009 | Windows | |
| 2011 | iOS | |
| Max Payne | 2001 | Windows , Xbox and Playstation 2 |
| Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne | 2003 | Windows , Xbox and Playstation 2 |
| Alan Wake | 2010 | Xbox 360 |
| Alan Wake's American Nightmare | Q1 2012 | Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade) |
References
- ^ "Number of employees". Eurogamer. 2010-02-19. Retrieved 2010-02-19.
- ^ Bobic (2007-01-18). "Sceners in the Games Industry". 4players.de. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
- ^ 3D Realms News – Remedy Entertainment & Future Crew
- ^ Siegler, Joe (July 17, 1998). "Remedy Entertainment & Lucasarts". 3D Realms. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
- ^ http://www.take2games.com/index.php?p=pr&release=Max%20Payne%202%20Announced%20by%20Take-Two&page=1
- ^ "Official site". Retrieved 21 July 2009.
- ^ "Remedy Defends Next Alan Wake Being On XBLA". GamingUnion.net. 2011-11-06. Retrieved 2011-11-06.