Control Has Sold Over 3 Million Copies; Made €92 Million In Revenue

The recent half-year financial report from Digital Bros, the owner of Control’s publisher 505 Games, has revealed some interesting info. According to the documents, the game has now sold over 3 million copies worldwide after releasing in 2019. In addition, the Remedy Entertainment title has brought in €92 million in revenue for Digital Bros.

Considering how the game’s budget was less than €30 million, the game is a resounding success. Thanks to the financial report, we also learn about the upcoming games in the Control universe from page 13 of these documents. Control 2, officially confirmed in 2022, is in development and will have a higher budget. Due to an agreement with publisher 505 Games, Remedy will have €50 million to make the sequel.

In addition to the sequel, a spin-off is also in development at Remedy Entertainment. Announced in 2021, Project Condor will be a multiplayer co-op game based on the 2019 original. Digital Bros confirmed this in the documents and is investing €25 million to make the game. Remedy Entertainment is developing both of these titles in accordance with the agreement the studio has with 505 Games.

Both of these titles will be developed in the studio’s very own Northlight Engine like 2019’s Control. While it has adopted a lot of trends from other forms of media, gaming doesn’t have a lot of shared universes. But, Remedy changed this in 2019 by releasing Control and creating the RemedyVerse.

Inspired by the popular internet horror series SCP Foundation, it followed the paranormal themes of Remedy’s previous game Alan Wake. However, unlike the 2010 game, the studio made Control with a smaller budget and in a more efficient manner. Due to this approach, the action-adventure game only had a development cycle of 3 years compared to Alan Wake’s seven. The game takes place in the Oldest House and we take command of protagonist Jesse Faden.

Control revolves around the Federal Bureau of Control, a government agency made to deal with events violating reality. We have to find Jesse’s brother in the never-ending Oldest House while fighting “the Hiss” through Telekinesis and good-old shooting. It first launched on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in August 2019 to critical acclaim. Reviews praised the peculiar storytelling and narrative, with the intriguing setting also garnering applause.

Nintendo Switch and Amazon Luna got cloud-based versions of Control in October 2020. The game came out on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S in February 2021, with a Stadia port released in July 2021. By December 2020, the game had sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Remedy Entertainment said that over 10 million players had played Control by August 2021.

This figure accounted for the users who played it through the Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. Moreover, the action-adventure got nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards among other accolades. Control’s expansions tied it to the 2010 cult classic Alan Wake by revealing they both take place in the same universe. Wake also appeared in the AWE expansion, ahead of his own sequel launching this year.

With several Game of the Year awards from publications like IGN and a commercially viable performance under its belt, Control has set high standards for the sequel. Hopefully, Remedy makes use of the larger budget and deliver the game fans deserve.