Remedy Entertainment is making waves once again.
The Games studio announced today that it has acquired the full rights to the Control franchise from 505 Games, publishers of the first Control video game.
The news is significant considering Remedy is currently developing a Control sequel, and a multi-player game set in the Control universe, currently codenamed Condor. The move gives Remedy publishing, distribution, marketing and other rights to these and all future Control products.
“The Control franchise is in the core of Remedy. Having acquired the full rights to Control, Condor and Control 2, Remedy is now in a position to make the right product and business decisions focusing on long-term franchise growth,” Remedy said in a statement today.
“This transaction will enable us to negotiate better deals for current and future Control games. We can now weigh up the options between self-publishing and a new publishing partner for Condor and Control 2. At the same time, we are in a better negotiating position than before as Control is an established brand and Alan Wake 2 has been successful. We are confident that these factors combined will enable us to get the right partner, deal structure and risk-reward profile that benefit Remedy and are the best fit for the Control franchise. We will evaluate and negotiate with potential future partners over the coming months.”
As part of Remedy’s deal with 505 Publishing agreements for Control, codename Condor, and Control 2 are immediately terminated by mutual agreement.
For Control 2 and codename Condor, all publishing, distribution, marketing, and other rights licensed to 505 Games revert to Remedy with immediate effect. 505 Games will continue as the publisher of Control through a transition period ending December 31, 2024, under the terms of the original Control publishing agreement.
In addition, 505 Games continues to administrate existing B2B deals for Control until their agreed expiration dates. After the transition period and the expiry of these B2B deals, 505 Games will have no future royalty or other rights to Control.
The maximum purchase price for the transaction is approximately EUR 17 million, which equals the amount that 505 Games has paid for the development of codename Condor and Control 2 to date including a minor premium.
Remedy’s CEO Tero Virtala said in a statement on the acquisition “Ever since we signed up with 505 Games in 2017 to develop and publish Control, we have enjoyed a good partnership in building Control into a successful game that has sold over 4 million units and generated shareable net revenue of approximately EUR 100 million to Remedy and 505 Games. As part of Remedy’s long-term strategy to have more ownership over our business and the IPs we have created, we have gotten back all rights for Control and the in-development Condor and Control 2. Having complete ownership over the Control franchise gives us the freedom to decide the best path forward. We will consider our options carefully, knowing that Control is considered an attractive franchise by many partners. Condor and Control 2 have both progressed well in recent months and we expect these projects to reach their next development stages during the first half of 2024. The development of Condor and Control 2 will continue normally when we consider the best publishing, distribution and financing model for these projects.”
Tero Virtala added, “As we amicably part ways, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the 505 Games team for our partnership over the years and for helping to establish Control as a gaming franchise with a lot of future potential.”