14 DAY TRIAL // Recently, word has been circling around that Alan Wake, the long-in-development title at Remedy, will not get a PC version when it comes out in 2010. Until now, Remedy has not clearly stated its position, but it has done so now, and the news is rather bad for PC players.
Brightfalls, one of the biggest fan sites dedicated to Alan Wake, has received the following statement from Remedy: “Thank you for your continued interest in Alan Wake. It is accurate that we are currently working exclusively on the Xbox 360 version of Alan Wake. PC plans are currently open, and therefore it’s safe to say that at least a simultaneous launch with the Xbox version will not happen at this late stage. Remedy has a deep heritage in PC gaming and would love to see a PC version available to its PC followers, ultimately however this decision lies with our publisher.”
So, Microsoft is in charge of making the decisions, which is quite unfortunate for PC gamers, as the maker of the Xbox 360 home gaming console will probably not be very interested in getting a PC version of a potential exclusive out. Still, there's some hope. Alan Wake was shown at the E3 trade show and the demo was pretty action-packed and explosive at some points, but the title is also set to pack in quite an amount of talking and just looking around, which is a play style that is more suited to the sensibilities of PC gamers.
Also, Alan Wake will be a quite niche release, even if Microsoft will like to broaden its appeal to include lovers of shooters, and, as such, the game might benefit from a bigger exposure to the PC market, which usually embraces such niche titles. Microsoft will probably weight the arguments and an official announcement related to the PC version will likely come a little after the launch of Alan Wake. Our money is on the PC version coming out six months after the Xbox 360 one.