Alan Wake 2 is 'going well' but Remedy won't be showing it off this summer

Remedy announced in 2018 that the spooky sleeper hit Alan Wake was being adapted for television. An awful lot has happened since, including the Remedy Connnected Universe, Max Payne remakes, and—finally—Alan Wake 2. But while we haven't heard anything about the TV show since it was first announced, Remedy creative director Sam Lake confirmed today that it's still on and moving ahead.

"As we know, sometimes making videogames takes a long while," Lake said during the 12th anniversary update video. "Well, it kind of turns out that now and again, making a TV show can take even longer.

"Some of you might remember that we were, quite awhile ago, talking about the Alan Wake TV show. Well, AMC, the wonderful, wonderful home for absolutely brilliant TV shows, has bought the rights for Alan Wake. And we have been collaborating on making a TV show happen. Nothing more to share at the moment, but we will certainly let you know when there is something to announce."

Lake, along with Alan Wake performance actor Ilkka Villi and voice actor Matthew Porretta, also discussed the studio's approach to Alan Wake 2, which it described at the 2021 Game Awards as "Remedy's first-ever survival horror game."

"It's a new genre, and we are pushing further into the horror aspect of it, but also like exploring the depth of the character," Lake says in the video. Alan Wake 2 will dig deeper into "Alan Wake the person," beyond just the "terrified but cool" persona of the first game.

"We are pushing him further than ever before," Lake says. "And that's part of a horror story as well, putting the character through the wringer."

The one bit of bad news amidst all of this is that the closer look at Alan Wake 2 that was hoped-for this summer is not going to happen. 

"Everything is going well," Lake explains. "A great deal of the game is playable. We are iterating it. But we've been talking the past couple of months and we've come to a decision that we will not be showing anything big this summer. We want to make sure that we are creating the best possible experience, the best first survival horror game for Remedy. We don't want to pivot the team away from that focus to work on a demo right now. Unfortunately, you will have to wait for a proper demo and trailer a bit longer."

On the upside, there was no mention of a delay in the game itself: It's still slated to arrive sometime in 2023. We also got a look at a few pieces of concept art that you can check out below.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.