In our latest Community Spotlight, we look at Yasmin's incredible in-depth work exploring one of Alan Wake 2's most mysterious characters, Freya Anderson. .
Before we settle into 2025, let's take a quick look back into the past twelve months, revisiting the milestones and events that took place at the studio and in the community.
We recently spoke Tiia Öhman about working as a photographer on the Alan Wake 2 set. Her stunning work can be seen in-game, in marketing, and on merchandise.
To celebrate the game's 10th anniversary, we sat down with Matthew Porretta, the incredible voice actor behind Alan Wake, to talk about his experiences and memories.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of their time-travelling adventure, Quantum Break, Remedy shared a celebratory video featuring lead actor Shawn Ashmore.
In the adventure, Ashmore played Jack Joyce, the brother of renowned scientist William Joyce, who becomes caught in the aftermath of a failed time-travel experiment. (As you do.) Time has become fractured, and there may be only one thing that can prevent the final collapse. Unfortunately, things are never that simple in a time-travel story.
Speaking about the project ten years after it launched, Ashmore says to camera, "I just wanted to make this video to thank the fans that played the game when it came out, have continued to support the game, and to the people who are still finding the game ten years later. I still get fan art, fan fiction; people creating and writing intricate storylines for what happened to Jack and Beth after the end of the game. This is ten years later!"
While Quantum Break is a Microsoft IP, and technically outside of the Remedy Connected Universe, the project still has great influence, even today. After the project launched, the studios parted ways, but things didn't quite end there. The developers stayed in touch with several of the actors, making them important parts of the Remedy Connected Universe. After Quantum Break, Ashmore later starred in Alan Wake 2 as Sheriff Tim Breaker and The Actor.
Quantum Break released 10 years ago today, 5th April 2016.
— Remedy Entertainment 🔻Wishlist CONTROL Resonant! (@remedygames) April 5, 2026
Message from Shawn Ashmore, Quantum Break's Jack Joyce Transcript
Hey guys, good morning! I'm actually on vacation, and I just realised that one of my favourite roles and one of the favourite projects I've ever worked on is turning ten years old, like, right now!
I was lucky enough to play a character called Jack Joyce in an amazing video game called Quantum Break. I just wanted to make this video to thank the fans that played the game when it came out, have continued to support the game, and to the people who are still finding the game ten years later. I still get fan art, fan fiction; people creating and writing intricate storylines for what happened to Jack and Beth after the end of the game. This is ten years later!
It's also exactly why I also wanted to work with Remedy. I was a huge fan of Remedy studios prior to working with them on Quantum Break. To me, they are some of the best storytellers, not even in video games but also in entertainment in general. And I think Quantum Break's lasting appeal speaks volumes to how Remedy exists in the entertainment space and in the video game storytelling space. So thank you to everybody that has played the game, that continues to find the game, and has supported it over the years. And happy 10th birthday, Quantum Break".
Ten years ago today, Remedy celebrated the release of Quantum Break on Xbox One and Windows 10. The adventure follows Jack Joyce, brother of renowned scientist William Joyce, as he is pulled into a world-ending crisis after a failed time-travel experiment fractured time itself. Time is now breaking down, creating stutters that occur with greater regularity. Soon, everyone and everything will be frozen in zero state... well, almost everyone. There's a potential of a plan, a dead brother to save, and a much bigger picture.
We're going to celebrate Quantum Break's anniversary throughout the year, but today we have a pretty special giveaway. It's a small prize, but extremely rare. So, if you're a collector, you'll definitely want to enter!
For the prize, we are giving away a Chronon Field Regulator keyring.
Sounds like a weird prize for an anniversary milestone, right? Well, this little thing is not quite what it seems. These were never made available for purchase and appeared only at one or two promotional events in Europe, possibly only at a press event. The history is a little hazy, but that's the story we've gathered so far. They were only accessible through an internal official Microsoft store page for marketers setting up an in-person event.
And they're definitely sneaky! We followed Quantum Break through from announcement to post-launch news, wrapping up each promotional event stop. We knew about the stickers, lanyards, t-shirts, waterbottles, and trading cards that were given away... but we didn't know about this until years after the game launched.
So, what about the keyring itself? It's hefty, made of metal, and recreated to resemble the CFR (aka the Countermeasure) shown in the game. It's not a direct replica; I noticed it has a repeating pattern on the sides, whereas the in-game model shows some variation in elements like the display and lights. It's not the kind of thing that you notice unless you're really examining it. As it's metal, it also has some heft, perfect as a paperweight if you don't want to risk putting it on a bag. As it's a promotional piece, it also has the Quantum Break logo engraved on the side.
Also, have I mentioned that it's really heavy?!
The giveaway will end on Sunday, April 19th 2026, at 11:59PM BST (GMT +1).
For this giveaway, there will be one (1) winner selected at random from valid entries.
How To Enter:
For the giveaway, we want to hear your standout moment from the game. It could be a quote, a scene, or a character.
Submissions can be sent in to: Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, or Twitter. You can also email in your entry to alanwake.thesuddenstop(at)gmail.com.
(To enter quickly, tap the social media platform above to be sent to the specific tweet to respond to.)
Giveaway Rules:
The prize was bought by The Sudden Stop as part of a community giveaway.
This giveaway is not sponsored or endorsed by Remedy Entertainment, Epic Games, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, Bluesky or Instagram.
One entry per person.
This is open worldwide, but restrictions may apply to countries with limits on internet competitions or giveaways.
Entry to the giveaway is free.
No cash prize alternative will be available.
A new winner may be selected if the first does not respond to the email within 2 weeks of the original email being sent. However, this is only a last resort after three weeks of reminders and alternative communication methods, e.g., social media posts.
The giveaway will begin on Sunday, 5th April 2026 at 15:00 BST and will end on Sunday, April 19th 2026, at 11:59PM BST (GMT +1).
There will be 1 (one) winner who will receive the Countermeasure/CFR keyring.
Entries collected through Facebook follow the rules, HERE.
Entries collected through Twitter follow the rules stated in their Guidelines, HERE.
If you enter through a social media platform, you will need to follow us for the entry to be valid.
We will be sending the parcel tracked as *gesters wildly in Royal Mail's direction*; lessons have been learned.
If you want some company on your commute or daily walks, why not check out the new weekly podcast by J and Tempest, Remedy This!. It's a new fan-driven podcast which takes a weekly look at the Remedy Connected Universe and theorises what's left unsaid.
While the podcast is a brand-new project, the hosts also run the Target Fixation Gaming YouTube Channel. The channel has been around since 2023, exploring in-depth the weird and wonderful universe of Remedy's adventures. While they also delve into other beloved series such as The Last of Us and Silent Hill, their heart is clearly with the Alan Wake and Control franchises, with a packed feed filled with detailed playthroughs, snippets of easily missed discussions or details, and relaxing ASMR videos.
So far, two episodes have been released. In the pilot, Tempest and J reflect on the recent EDGE magazine and the new details that emerged from Alex Spencer's CONTROL Resonant feature. They discuss Dylan stepping into the role of the protagonist and try to break down what the released screenshots reveal.
Once the pilot was completed, the duo created a new Remedy This! Podcast YouTube channel. And for their first official episode in their new home, they looked back at the similarities in the siblings' mannerisms and in the characters' other selves in Quantum Break. They also talk about the Prime Candidate programme from Control, and the FBC's laser-focused interest in Dylan.
Tempest and J go live every Sunday (excluding holidays) at 9pm PST (5am BST / 7am EEST). You can check them out on YouTube and on Twitch!
Ahead of the Easter weekend, Remedy has released a new development diary for CONTROL Resonant, Evolving The Gameplay Experience.
For their second outing, the team shares what players can expect to find in the twisted Manhattan landscape and their approach to tackling the challenge of shaking up combat for the sequel. Throughout the video, we also see glimpses of the game's loadout, alongside early concept artwork for Dylan.
We hear from a selection of lovely people, including Mikael Kasurinen (Creative Director), Juha Vainio (Executive Producer), Anne-Marie Grönroos (Lead Level Designer), Sergey Mohov (Lead Gameplay Designer), Annika Lehitnen (Lead Gameplay Animator), and Elmeri Raitanen (Art Director).
You can check out the second development diary for CONTROL Resonant below or on the studio's YouTube channel, HERE!
CONTROL Resonant - Evolving The Gameplay Experience | Development Diary Transcript
Juha Vainio: We have the biggest gameplay team in Remedy history.
Sergey Mohov: In Resonant, I think, we've taken the next step.
Mikael Kasurinen: It just felt good, it just felt fun, and it's like something that nobody's really done before
CONTROL Resonant - Evolving The Gameplay Experience Intro
Mikael Kasurinen: One of the challenges when you take steps towards an RPG direction has been the permutations of options that accumulate after we start to kind of lay them in front of the player. Even in the first game, we wanted to take these RPG elements that we bring into a Remedy experience. That's been our kind of conceptual direction, day one with Control, that we want to see what the Remedy RPG game would look like. And what was important to us [was] that we do it in our own way. And we're known for storytelling, creating these kinds of deep narratives, an interesting, complicated world and so on. So, it felt like we have all the right ingredients to be able to kind of step into this more RPG-oriented direction. And it's been wonderful, we're really excited about that.
Juha Vainio: We have the biggest gameplay team in Remedy history, which allows us to make more weapon forms, more paranatural abilities, more deeper gameplay systems, and the whole gameplay experience will then be much more solid, and I would say much more fun.
Anne-Marie Grönroos: So one very, very big thing that was our main way of forcing the players to engage with combat in the first game was, we just had these Hiss barriers appear on the doorways and lock you in with the enemies, and you had to kill everyone to get out. On the open streets, we most of the time can’t actually do that because, we can’t just make these huge red walls appear around the player. So instead, what we do, most of the time we try to incentivise the player to kill the enemies.
Sergey Mohov: So you can be fighting enemies with melee, on the ground level, for example, on the street, then use the Reach ability to zap yourself up onto a vantage point, shoot some projectiles down, and then jump back down with a ground slam to finish them off. I think that's a really satisfying.
Mikael Kasurinen: When we started to put together this functionality, it started off small, right? Like, first off, we wanted to just kind of tap into the idea of having a shifting gravity, and that was it. But as we kept working on it, it just felt good, it just felt fun, and it's like something that nobody's really done before to this extent. And we kind of got more excited and engaged by it. And we kept going further. The first time I saw this functionality, I was blown away because I knew when I saw it that we have something really unique and exciting going on here.
Annika Lehitnen: The Hiss and the Mold have evolved; they've become way more complex from the previous game, where we all only had, like, humans, with different guns. So this time, we try to also emphasise, way more, the two factions from each other.
Mikael Kasurinen: The Hiss and the Mold are these factions that we discover in the first game. Different paranatural forces, equally dangerous. Of course, they have different identities, different ways of affecting the world, and different visual appearances, and so on.
Elmeri Raianen: The Mold was one of those things that we needed to visually evolve a bit when stepping out of the Oldest House, because we didn't want this game to just feel like it's in a post-apocalyptic setting where nature is taking over. But our Mold really needed to read as an other-dimensional threat.
Sergey Mohov: In Resonant, I think, we've taken the next step. Enemies have very distinct combat roles. They're all kinds of different shapes and sizes. Both the Hiss and the Mold have evolved a lot as threats. And they are really good at getting the player to use the right tools at the right time.
Mikael Kasurinen: The real world has some kind of influence upon them, making them more violent, more aggressive, more unpredictable as well, posing a lot of interesting challenges. Movement and paranatural abilities that Dylan uses aren’t just a part of the exploration and of covering distance in the level; they're also about strategy in combat.
Annika Lehitnen: So, what is different for CONTROL Resonant is that when Jesse had her service weapon, it was always visible in that form if you're in combat. In CONTROL Resonant, Aberrant is only taking the form it needs when it needs it. So that means that, the form actually only appears when you're doing the melee attack. This means that sometimes, because there's a huge variety in the forms that you can take, sometimes we only have [a] very limited amount of frames to actually show the form. So, we tried to do the best we can to actually showcase them. But also at the end of the attacks, we have different ways of making the forms then disappear.
Sergey Mohov: Aberant is not just one weapon either; it can shift into different forms, depending on what you've unlocked. And so, depending on what is needed for the job at any given time. So it will evolve with the player, as they progress through the story, and as you explore the world and find new ways to fight. And also the first thing that you do in the game is actually choose which form it will take. So we don't give you a predefined form right in the beginning, we actually get you to choose what you want, straight up. We heard player feedback from the first game. And, we're happy to reveal that CONTROL Resonant will have save slots. So you can try different things and have multiple concurrent playthroughs going at the same time. You also get access to certain endgame activities in the game. One example of those is SHÜM, which will be familiar to returning players from Control 1. It's an arcade machine, and you will find one of these arcade machines in each zone, each with a unique challenge. They're quite hard to beat, but they also have leaderboards.
Juha Vainio: Story has always been in the centre of Remedy games, and story is super important for us as well. But when it comes to the second-to-second combat and traversal, we have really gone to town with gameplay. Now with Resonant, we are taking it to the next level.
