Firebreak Flop Will Cost Them $15 Million – WGB

Remedy has revealed that it’s facing down a fairly hefty $14.9 million loss this year thanks to the failure of its multiplayer shooter FBC: Firebreak which launched a few months ago.

Remedy put out a rare “profit warning” document ahead of its next financial report on October 29.

“Due to weak sales of FBC: Firebreak, Remedy lowers its long-term sales forecast for the game,” said the company. “Consequently, the company recognizes a non-cash impairment of EUR 14.9 million, representing a majority of the game’s capitalized development costs and allocated purchased publishing and distribution rights. “

Previously, Remedy reckoned 2025 would see an increase in both operating profit and revenue, but they’ve now amended that, expecting instead for revenue to still increase but operating profit to be negative.

Firebreak released back in June and it was immediately apparent that it wasn’t doing well, drawing in just 2,000 concurrent players on Steam. That number dropped to less than a 100 a month later, and the console versions didn’t seem to be doing any better.

Remedy acknowledged the low sales and player counts in its half-year reports, describing the game as “underperforming”.

The first big update came out in September and Remedy notes “improved player and sales metrics after the update” but that sales were still not meeting their internal targets.

The “improved” player metrics that Remedy refers to after the update was a small bump up to 259 concurrent players on Steam, but that quickly fizzled out again. At the time of writing, the game is back to drawing in less than 100 concurrent players a day on Steam.

To put bluntly, when this game came out I couldn’t help but notice that nobody seemed to even be aware of its existence. Control and Alan Wake 2 are exceptional games and FBC: Firebreak is set in the same universe, but that connection was not enough, nor did it help that the name doesn’t really reference either of them. In other words, nobody seemed to care.

It’s a shame because Remedy is an excellent company. But the decision to pivot into a multiplayer game was a peculiar one when the company is known for its singleplayer adventures. Then again, Remedy is a company that likes to do its own thing, so maybe they fancied a change. Sadly, it did not pay off.