Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind last year’s Alan Wake 2 and 2019’s Control, has canceled its “premium cooperative multiplayer game” Codename Kestrel. According to Remedy, the game, which was being financed and jointly published by Tencent, was in the early concept stage, with only a small team working on it.
The studio says it canceled Codename Kestrel to focus on other games in development in its portfolio, noting that because of the cancellation, its other projects “experienced from Kestrel Developers will be reassigned.”
In addition, Remedy says that planned capital expenditures and the need to hire additional employees for Kestrel are eliminated with the cancellation.
“I want to thank my Kestrel development team. Although we decided to close the project for broader therapeutic benefits, our team has done a great job and provided us with valuable learnings. I am now at Tencent. Also want to thank for the contribution. Very professional and helpful.”
Codename Kestrel, as a project, originated as a reboot of the earlier Remedy project codenamed Vanguard beginning in November 2023.
The cancellation comes just weeks after Remedy’s latest update on its in-development games, where the studio said Codename Kestrel is in the concept stage. This is where Remedy revealed that the Control 2 team is focused on finalizing the proof-of-concept phase and that Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake is expected to enter full production in Q2 of this year. You can read that update here.
Do you think Remedy is making the right call by canceling Codename Kestrel? Let us know in the comments below!