In agreement with Tencent Games, Remedy finally gave up developing a free-to-play, economic model with which the studio of Max Payne, Control and Alan Wake has no experience. “Vanguard”, whose code name will now be “Kestrel”, will still be a multiplayer game focused on cooperation, except that it is no longer a question of free-to-play but of a traditional game with a purchase price. Thus rebooted, the project will restart at the purely conceptual stage and will therefore not enter its development phase for a good while. Part of the Vanguard team will even be transferred to other Remedy projects, namely Condor, Control 2 and Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake.
When in doubt, reboot
“ Due to the uncertainties of creating a successful game in an evolving free-to-play market and the associated risks, Remedy and Tencent discussed a new direction for the game project, which will receive the new name code “Kestrel”. Some of the former Vanguard development team will move to work on Remedy’s other ongoing projects, while key leadership and some members of the Kestrel development team will focus on the new direction of the project from the design phase, in order to create a high-end game with a strong cooperative multiplayer component. The new experience will build more on Remedy’s strengths and build on many of the features, resources, and themes already built for Vanguard », summarizes the Remedy press release.
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