The repeatedly leaked Alan Wake remaster seems imminent
Retail listings suggest an October release date
References to Alan Wake Remastered were discovered among Epic Games Store files back in June (at the same time as Final Fantasy VII Remake references). Now listings for console versions of the horror remaster have been spotted on retailer website Rakuten Taiwan, alongside an October 5th release date.
Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad responded to the leak on Twitter by saying that the Alan Wake remaster would be announced next week.
Developers Remedy Entertainment got the publishing rights for Alan Wake back from Microsoft in 2019. It returned to online stores at that point, and it's currently £11.39/€12.49 on Steam. Since then, the character Alan Wake has appeared in a Control expansion, Remedy's supernatural action game set in the same universe.
Back in February 2020, Remedy mentioned that they were working on two projects, one of which was a smaller project people thought might be an Alan Wake revival. Since then Remedy have also announced they're making two new games set in the Control universe, one of which is a four-player co-op spin-off.
Alan Wake first came out on Xbox in 2010 and arrived on PC in 2012. It's a third-person horror game with a Stephen King vibe, including a protagonist who is a horror novelist, and Alec found lots to like and lots to deride about it in his Alan Wake review. He said it had a setting and a tone that he really "thrilled to", as well as bold stylistic and conceptual ideas, but that it was ultimately let down by "tedium and incoherency."
Given those criticisms, I'm interested to see whether an Alan Wake remaster does more than upgrade the textures. Remedy revisited some similar ideas (in-game TV shows, for example) with the more beloved Control, so they certainly have it in them to rub the crust out of Mr. Wake's eyes.