Remedy has announced a full remaster of its cult classic Alan Wake, due to arrive this fall on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC (via Epic Games Store). Perhaps more excitingly, it opens the door more than ever for Alan Wake 2 to come down the line.
After a leak last week, Remedy and publisher Epic announced that Alan Wake Remastered would come with both of the game's expansions, allow for 4K resolution, and will include a new commentary from creative director Sam Lake. No official release date has been announced, but the previous retailer leaks have pointed to October 5.
Lake himself wrote about the remaster on Alan Wake/Remedy fansite The Sudden Stop, beginning his letter by writing "this is for you". He confirmed that the game was almost complete, and that it is "the original experience you fell in love with all those years ago. We did not want to change that. But the visuals all around, including the character model of Alan Wake himself and the cinematics, have been updated and improved with some choice next-generation upgrades."
The announcement of the remaster will undoubtedly see fans getting excited about a long-awaited sequel. When Remedy partnered with Epic Games, the developer was said to be working on two games from the franchise – one was a "AAA multi-platform game", and the other a "smaller-scale project". It feels very likely that Alan Wake Remastered is the smaller project, leaving a full Alan Wake 2 more possible than ever.
Despite troubles with the first game – it was designed as an open world game but had to be drastically altered due to production difficulties – Remedy has made no secret of wanting to return to Alan Wake's world. It's started work on the sequel before, but never been able to reach the finish line. However, after folding Alan Wake into the world of Control, it seems Remedy has big plans for its own interconnected universe of games – and Alan Wake 2 feels very much like it could be a part of that.
Alan Wake originally arrived in 2010, and told the story of an author on the search of his missing wife, slowly discovering that a horror story he wrote is coming true around him. This remaster marks the first time the cult classic has ever been released on PlayStation.
We awarded the original release a 9/10 review, saying it did "a great job of mixing elements of written work, television, and video games to create an experience full of scares, laughs, and thrills that's just as fun to play as it is to watch."
Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].