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Alan Wake gets a Xbox 360 release date

Published on 12th February 2010 by Joe Martin

Alan Wake has finally been given a concrete release date of May 21st in Europe, after five years of development.

Speaking at Microsoft's X10 event in San Francisco, Remedy Entertainment and Microsoft have finally pinned down a specific release date for the long-delayed Alan Wake.

Alan Wake will now see an Xbox 360 release on May 18th, 2010, in North America, though Europe and the rest of the world will have to wait until May 21st, 2010.

Microsoft has also revealed some pre-order bonuses for the game too, though it'll only be available at select retailers. Pre-ordering the game will net players a 'Bright Falls Bonus Pack' which included some avatar items, an Xbox LIVE theme and a making of video.

There's also a limited edition collectors version of the game in the works too, which will include a bonus disc of behind-the-scenes footage, some in-game commentary, a soundtrack, a book about the game and more, according to ShackNews.

Alan Wake tells the story of a writer who finds himself trapped in a story he doesn't remember writing after retreating to the town of Bright Falls to work of his writer's block. It's written and developed by the same team who did Max Payne. It's also set to have episodic expansions of some sort in the future.

Often thought to be vapourware, Alan Wake has been in development for more than five years. It was originally announced as a PC title that would be the first DirectX 10 only title to run exclusively on Vista. Those plans changed over the years though and the game is now an Xbox 360 exclusive, with a PC version still "up in the air" according to Remedy.

Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

22 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

MrJay 12th February 2010, 11:31

Well...I have an Xbox 360, but i'd much rather have a PC version : /
/sigh

Eggy 12th February 2010, 12:02

Graphics look less impressive than the first demo a few years ago, it was running on a PC with DirextX10 then.

pcnerd 12th February 2010, 12:10

BAH i say middle fingers to REMEDY if they cancel the pc version in the name of shitty excuse

lanehead 12th February 2010, 12:50

blasphemy! I really hope they haven't watered down the PC version due to microsofts involvement!

Zut 12th February 2010, 12:59

Been looking forward to this for the last three years, but there is absolutely no way I'll get the X360 version, not least of all because I dont have an X360!!

azrael- 12th February 2010, 13:20

Nothing to see. Move along.

mjm25 12th February 2010, 13:27

that bonus disc of behind the scenes stuff must be a BluRay it's been in development so long.

Bursar 12th February 2010, 13:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjm25
that bonus disc of behind the scenes stuff must be a BluRay it's been in development so long.

More likely to be VHS ;)

sear 12th February 2010, 13:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eggy
Graphics look less impressive than the first demo a few years ago, it was running on a PC with DirextX10 then.

Well duh. Developing for the Xbox 360 means you have to focus on shader power instead of geometry and texture resolution, and also means you can't have as detailed lighting and the like (which the game revolves around). That's not to say it doesn't look good, and Remedy were always technically proficient developers, but it's obvious that the game is necessarily limited by the hardware.

uz1_l0v3r 12th February 2010, 13:44

Alan who?

NuTech 12th February 2010, 13:59

Looking forward to the game, looks interesting.

Delaying a game has no negative effect on my life, so I don't see the point of judging or dismissing something because of it.

salesman 12th February 2010, 14:15

I have been waiting 5 years to hear this release date
meh

Anfield 12th February 2010, 16:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcnerd
BAH i say middle fingers to REMEDY if they cancel the pc version in the name of shitty excuse

My bet is on a GTA like strategy, deny there is a PC version to boost sales of the console version then release a crappy ported pc version later on.

Hg 12th February 2010, 16:08

i can confirm that Alan wake will never be coming to PC
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/alan-wake-officially-binned-on-pc

Quote:

The PC version of Alan Wake is officially no more.

A spokesperson for Microsoft offered Strategy Informer this statement:

"Some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen. We ultimately realised that the most compelling way to experience Alan Wake was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive.

"Both Microsoft and Remedy have long histories in PC game development. This decision was about matching this specific game to the right platform."

A question-mark has hung over Alan Wake on PC since Remedy publicly refocused its efforts on the Xbox 360 SKU last July.

That work appears to have paid off, as last night Microsoft announced a 21st May release date for Alan Wake on Xbox 360.

We'll bring you our thoughts of the long-awaited Xbox 360 exclusive from X10 very soon.

I would have liked to given this game a go on PC as the tech demos back in the day showed this game to have plenty of potential and look graphically pretty, however now i would have assumed the graphics have been dumbed down for the rotbox exclusive....

NuTech 12th February 2010, 16:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hg
A spokesperson for Microsoft offered Strategy Informer this statement:

"Some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen. We ultimately realised that the most compelling way to experience Alan Wake was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive."

Translation: "This is a story-driven, single player only game and will get pirated to high heavens on the PC so we're not going to waste our time."

Sign of the times folks.

liratheal 12th February 2010, 16:23

Five years.

For this?

Yeah.. No. Sorry, Remedy, you can swing on my nuts.

xaser04 12th February 2010, 16:48

Sweepstake: GT5 out before Alan Wake?

i7lova 12th February 2010, 16:52

Honestly every time I read anything about a game or new games news its just a bunch of whiny bitches carrying on about how they are doing this and don't like how they are doing that. Times change and so does the game industry. So thanks to heavy pirating of software PC games are slowly dying becuase noone wants to make the effort to put it out there. Ya'll bitch about DRM but yet if a game came out with none at all it probably wouldnt get much more support from the Developer becasue of the rampant pirating. Yes I know there are the people out there who say I don't pirate, blah, blah, blah. But there are Millions of people that do and they arent all on registered on this site. Who cares if its exclusive to the 360 don't like that fact then don't play it! Simple as that! You might be missing out on a great game you might not!

I take all this news with a grain of salt.... It is what it is... Really the main point I'm trying to make is that it seems regardless of what the news is or what a developer is doing with a game someone will always bitch about something anyways. You just can't win these days!

bobwya 12th February 2010, 17:40

Surely they should have changed the name when it changed platforms - to avoid confusion:

"Alan's (Long) Sleep"

TreeDude 12th February 2010, 19:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by NuTech
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hg
A spokesperson for Microsoft offered Strategy Informer this statement:

"Some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen. We ultimately realised that the most compelling way to experience Alan Wake was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive."
Translation: "This is a story-driven, single player only game and will get pirated to high heavens on the PC so we're not going to waste our time."

Sign of the times folks.

And yet when a multilayer focused game (MW2) does get released on the PC it has no dedicated server support. PC gamers are just screwed every which way. I used to be a pretty heavy PC gamer, but now my Xbox 360 gets way more play time.

Warrior24_7 22nd February 2010, 21:50

Fully expect PC gamer hate *er* "sour grapes", the game was canned for the PC now it sucks! the graphics suck, the 360 sucks, M$ sucks, the game indusrty sucks, I didn't like or want the game anyway, blah, blah ,blah. Bottom line, there is more where this came from. Get a console.

tron 24th February 2010, 11:51

^^^^ Waits for the thread to go quiet, then takes the opportunity to unleash his PC-hating blah, blah, blah :)