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Alan Wake 2 is coming this October, will be digital only

by Adam Cook on May 25, 2023

Remedy Entertainment and publisher Epic Games have announced that Alan Wake 2 is coming this October, and given us a look at the gameplay already. The game will be coming to PC (via Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X on October 17th.

The trailer reintroduces us to Alan’s plight, while also revealed Saga Anderson (Melanie Liburd, who has been in Bad Boys 4, Game of Thrones), who is an “accomplished FBI agent with a reputation for solving impossible cases, who arrives to investigate murders in the small town community of Bright Falls in the Pacific Northwest”. Remedy says that “Anderson’s case spirals into a nightmare when she discovers pages of a horror story that starts to come true and questions how it may be connected to missing writer Alan Wake, whose own dark story eerily mirrors her own”.

“Alan Wake 2 is an intense story and a layered mystery that takes players on two disturbing journeys, running in parallel and echoing each other in strange and unexpected ways,” said Sam Lake, Creative Director and Lead Writer of Alan Wake 2. “A newcomer to Alan Wake’s world, FBI Agent Saga Anderson’s investigation offers players a unique lens into this survival horror experience”.

Remedy also says that this is the team’s “first survival horror game” and that it’ll contain two playable heroes (Wake and Anderson), but also that the AWE Expansion for Control set things up for this sequel. Lastly of note, Alan Wake 2 will be digital-only, which Remedy explained, saying “a large number of have shifted to digital only. You can buy a Sony PlayStation 5 without a disc drive and Microsoft’s Xbox Series S is a digital only console. It is not uncommon to release modern games as digital-only”, and adding “Secondly, not releasing a disc helps keep the price of the game at $59.99 / €59.99 and the PC version at $49.99 / €49.99”. The developer also adds that “Finally, we did not want to ship a disc product and have it require a download for the game — we do not think this would make for a great experience either”, and that there are no plans for a disc-based version of the title.