Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Alan Wake is finally getting along-awaited sequel in 2023

Control developer Remedy Entertainment made a surprise appearance at this year’s Game Awards to announce a sequel to the cult-hit game Alan Wake. Simply titled Alan Wake 2, the game is set to release in 2023.

Alan Wake 2 Reveal Trailer | Game Awards 2021

In a teaser trailer, Alan Wake 2‘s namesake character appears bloody and much more grizzly, with gore smeared around his mouth. In the first game, Wake was a hapless writer thrown into a nightmarish world dominated by evil creatures made out of darkness. Wake’s iconic flashlight, which he used to fend off the creatures, was also absent from the trailer, with the character instead holding up a dimly lit lamp.

According to Sam Lake, the creative director of Remedy Entertainment, Alan Wake 2 will be a far cry from its predecessor. Instead of being action-oriented — in the last game, Wake blew enemies away with a shotgun — Alan Wake 2 will be a survival horror title, leaning more into the game’s terrifying traits. It’s also not clear how deep Alan Wake 2‘s ties with Control will be. Remedy revealed that the two games exist in the same universe, meaning a potential crossover could be on the way.

Fans looking forward to the game will have to wait to hear more about it, though. Lake said that Alan Wake 2 is early in development and that Remedy likely won’t be able to show off any of the game until summer 2022.

Alan Wake was also recently remastered, launching this past October across all platforms save for the Switch.

Editors' Recommendations

Otto Kratky
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…
Alan Wake gets an AMC show, Switch port, and sequel update
Promo art featuring front shot of Alan Wake.

Remedy Entertainment released a heap of Alan Wake news today, in celebration of the series' 12th anniversary. For starters, Alan Wake Remastered will come to Nintendo Switch later in 2022. In addition, the studio has announced a partnership with AMC for the Alan Wake TV show, and revealed that it will not be releasing a trailer for Alan Wake 2 this summer.

Alan Wake Remastered -- which launched for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC in 2021 -- is in development for Nintendo Switch and will launch digitally for the platform in fall 2022. Remedy explains the game will run on the console natively (as opposed to via the cloud). The company said it will provide an update on the Switch version "in the coming months."

Read more
Alan Wake isn’t like Twin Peaks. It’s a completely unique experience
alan wake david lynch alantitle

Apophenia is a general term for interpreting patterns from data. This is why we tend to see dragons or bunny rabbits in clouds or see faces in trees. This has helped humanity over the years, as it allowed us to predict where predators are or where we can find some tasty mushrooms out in the wilderness.

An issue arises when we try and force a pattern or a conclusion to be perceived as logical. Most of the time, this can actually hinder us from seeing what is actually there. This is a common occurrence when analyzing media. People seem to almost grasp desperately at straws of logic to construct a secure foundation in their analysis. A blue curtain doesn’t have to mean the protagonist is sad, and an off-kilter story set in the Pacific Northwest doesn’t inherently earn comparisons to director David Lynch's Twin Peaks, the cult TV series that serves as a frequent point of comparison for some of gaming's stranger titles.

Read more
Alan Wake Remastered revives the cult classic this fall
Alan Wake shoots a flare gun in Alan Wake.

Remedy's cult classic Alan Wake is getting a remaster. The appropriately titled Alan Wake Remastered launches this fall and will bring the game to PlayStation for the first time ever.

Originally released in 2010, Alan Wake quickly became something of a cult classic. The action-adventure game is structured like a TV thriller, split into episodes complete with cliffhangers. It follows a novelist who begins living out scenes from one of his books while searching for his missing wife. The game has become even more significant in recent years thanks to Remedy's hit Control, which features ties to Alan Wake.

Read more