In April of this year, a financial update revealed that Remedy Entertainment’s ‘Codename Vanguard’ was shaping up as a free-to-play multiplayer title in the proof of concept stage, but almost nothing else was said about the game, leaving fans of the developer in the dark. Now, Remedy has published a fresh update, revealing that the planned free-to-play multiplayer game is being rebooted, now being named ‘Kestrel’ and pivoting to become a premium paid-for game.
It will reportedly retain the multiplayer elements that were originally planned to be featured, but instead of being a ‘free-to-play multiplayer game’, it’ll be a ‘premium game with a strong, cooperative multiplayer component.’
Going Back to Go Forward
It was stressed in a press release that Remedy Entertainment had to address the development of Codename Vanguard strictly because of the ‘rapidly changing free-to-play market and associated risks.’ Now, both Remedy Entertainment and Tencent (its publishing partner) have agreed to reboot the development cycle entirely, rebranding Vanguard as Kestrel and pushing the project back to a conceptual phase.
It was confirmed that no layoffs will take place as a result of the reboot and slight reorganisation.
In a statement, the CEO of Remedy Entertainment, Tero Virtala, said:
We have made some great strides in free-to-play and multiplayer development in Vanguard. After a lot of careful consideration, we believe that taking on a new direction where the game will be built more around Remedy’s core competences is the right way to go. We are creating another distinct Remedy game with Tencent’s continued support in making a great cooperative multiplayer experience.
Given that almost nothing was known about Codename Vanguard, it’s hard to be disappointed about the change in direction. In recent years, Remedy Entertainment has been hitting the mark big time, and most recently, the developer celebrated the hugely successful launch of Alan Wake 2, which was just nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards.
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