In 2025, the idea of releasing a paid, online-only multiplayer shooter seems very risky, as many of them have failed. But the remedy is that Developer behind it control And Alan Wakehave a plan to ensure that their first multiplayer game—FBC: Firebreak—succeeds and does not fail Concord or XDefiant.
Announced in October 2024, FBC firebreak is a co-op FPS set in the world of control. It's Remedy's first online multiplayer game, and while it looks really cool, that might not be enough. Fire breakwhich won't be free-to-play, enters an extremely crowded market full of established and popular free-to-play shooters like Marvel RivalsCounter-Strike 2, Fortnite, Overwatch 2 and Call of Duty Warzone. Remedy is aware of this and plans to do so Fire break extremely accessible at startup.
In a recent interview with GamesRadarremedy Communications director Thomas Puha explained that the studio wanted to lower the barrier to entry Fire break to get as many people as possible to play it on day one. This is a big step towards getting more people to play FBC: Firebreak will launch on both Game Pass and PS Plus sometime later this year.
“This lowers the barrier to entry to try the game as millions of Game Pass and PlayStation Plus subscribers have access. “It’s obviously a bit scary because hopefully there will be so many players during the launch window and we hope the game holds up,” Puha said.
“It also means the game will receive financial and marketing support from both first-party companies, which is crucial – especially since Remedy is self-publishing this game across all platforms.”
A large part of the plan remains intact Fire break from burning out in weeks or months, How Concord or XDefiantis set to release the upcoming shooter on both Steam and Epic. Remedy's last two games are exclusive to the Epic Games Store, so this is a change for the studio and will offer a larger pool of potential players Fire break at startup. Remedy plans to sell Fire break as a “mid-priced” shooter rather than a full-fledged $60 or $70 game, which will likely help it gain an audience on PC more quickly.
The Alan Wake Studio is also committed to this Fire break offers full cross-platform matchmaking for consoles and PC.
And another important part of Remedy's plan is to keep him FBC: FirebreakThe minimum requirements for the PC are “appropriate”. Alan Wake 2 was a very nice game, but it strained computers and consoles and caused performance issues. The goal is to avoid this Fire break.
“We'll still have great graphics and visual effects, everything you expect from Remedy, but in a multiplayer experience like this, frame rate is crucial, as is the responsiveness of the controls,” Puha explained.
Although there is no guarantee of this Fire break will be able to succeed where so many other online shooters have failed. It's good to see a studio being smart and realistic about the video game market. It would be nice if we could assume that really good games always sell well, but that's simply not the case, and Remedy seems well aware of this and is trying everything to avoid the next big multiplayer flop.
FBC firebreak will be released sometime in 2025 on PC, Xbox and PlayStation.
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