Remedy Entertainment, the developers of Alan Wake 2 and Control, has decided to cancel Project Kestrel in a step described allowing the company to “focus more on the other games in its portfolio.”
The game was originally codenamed Vanguard and according to insider reporting was believed to have been a free-to-play game. However, Remedy decided to reboot its development in November of 2023. Remedy describes Kestrel as “a small team working on the early concept stage of a premium cooperative multiplayer game.”
Now though, Project Kestrel, which was being co-financed by Chinese giant Tencent, will not ever get to see the light of day. The decision was made so that Remedy could focus on other games currently in development, which we know includes the Max Payne remake and Control 2.
Presumably this means Project Kestrel didn’t show as much promise as Remedy had initially hoped. Perhaps the 2023 reboot was the writing on the wall. Kestrel would “lean more into Remedy’s core strengths and be built on many of the features, assets, and themes already designed for Vanguard,” Remedy said at the time.
“Codename Kestrel showed early promise, but the project was still in its early concept stage. Our other projects have advanced well and are moving to the next stages of development, and increasing focus on them provides us with benefits. We can reallocate talented Kestrel developers to these other game projects, and many of our support functions get additional focus on their operations. This is yet another means to ensure that our game projects continue advancing well. I want to thank our Kestrel development team. Though we decided to discontinue the project for wider Remedy benefits, our team has done good work and provided us with valuable learnings. I also want to thank Tencent for their partnership so far. They have been very professional and supportive,” says Remedy’s CEO Tero Virtala in a lengthy statement.
A few days ago, Remedy provided updates on a couple of its other games. Alan Wake 2 was revealed to still not have made back its development budget, while the Max Payne 1&2 remake is scheduled to head into full production in Q2 of this year. Control 2 has entered into “production readiness.”