In video games, anything goes. Really, this industry is much different than many other, more traditional ones. But there is one rule all must follow, or else you risk missing out on a lot of money or potentially killing your entire franchise: never compete with Rockstar. But Remedy never got the memo and just kept doing it anyway. Back in 2010, the first Alan Wake came out on exactly the same day as Red Dead Redemption, which probably hammered the game’s presence and sales, considering how successful Rockstar’s second foray into westerns became. However, Remedy was then a much smaller studio, and the market was full of all sorts of experimental games, so the franchise somehow survived through that ill-advised decision. Control Resonant will probably be a visual masterpiece, much like other Remedy games. I just fear for its market viability. Image via Remedy But it’s 2010 no more. Gaming consolidated, big names became giants. Releasing next to anything Rockstar today is paramount to financial suicide, and you simply do not do it. We see time and again big-time publishers push their games’ release dates away from intended windows precisely because Rockstar is also releasing GTA 6 within the same timeframe. Remedy thinks that’s no biggie, though, and says putting Control Resonant out around the same time as the biggest game of all time is “playing the long game.” As per Tech Radar, Remedy chief executive Jean-Charles Gaudechon said he thinks GTA 6 will “raise the tide” and bring a lot of new interest to consoles. However, from Remedy’s perspective, “it’s less about trying to make your money back in a few days” but more about playing the long game. GTA 6 will most likely be the best-selling video game of all time, and I expect it to dominate discourse for months. Image via Rockstar Games “You can expect quality from us. You can expect a voice that will cut through the noise,” he said, adding that folks should “expect us to be as loud as we can and hopefully pique people’s interest.” Hopefully, it is doing a lot of heavy lifting, I suppose. On social media, Remedy fans, who are many, argued that since GTA 6 is going to release only on consoles, then Control Resonant has free rein over PC. And that’s true, but only to an extent. The entire gaming world will only be talking about GTA 6 for months after launch, drowning out any voices that might be trying to get the word out. Social media, YouTube, streaming platforms—everyone will be obsessing over Rockstar’s titan, and I think no amount of platform freedom can help you in that environment. I hope Control Resonant finds the audience to hear its imaginative, unique voice, I truly do. I’ll be playing it, too, and probably enjoy it as much as I did the first game. But I can’t say it isn’t setting itself up for disaster by entering the most competitive release window of all time, mimicking EA’s misguided decision to put out Titanfall 2 side-by-side with Battlefield 1, among others. And look where that got us. 0The post Remedy didn’t learn anything from its past releases and wants to put Control Resonant next to GTA 6 appeared first on Destructoid.