Feb
23
A. Wake in a Nightmare
A quick look over the overlooked Alan Wake.
Alan Wake, to say nothing of the game itself, has somewhat of an interesting story. Initially announced in 2005 for the PC and XBox 360, in 2009, the PC version was quietly canned in favor of making it an Xbox 360 exclusive. This angered PC gamers the world over as Remedy, the game’s developer, had been known as a top-tier PC developer for some time due to its success with the Max Payne series.
In May of 2010, Alan Wake launched on the same day as another, somewhat anticipated title named Red Dead Redemption. Unfortunately, Alan Wake was completely overshadowed by Rockstar’s mega-hit, and managed to sell only 330k units in North America, and 500k worldwide at retail. That holiday season, new Xbox 360 consoles included a download code redeemable for a free copy of the game which ended up adding another 900k to the total number “sold,” padding it quite a bit.
Then, in December of 2011, Remedy announced, quite unexpectedly, that Alan Wake would indeed be coming to the PC via the digital distribution outlet Steam. The game finally saw release in February of 2012, marking the end of a long, rather strange journey. In the video below, I show why it’s unique, and should be looked at by anyone who’s a fan of Twin Peaks, Stephen King, or just loves a good story.