After recently giving an update on a number of its in-development titles including the Max Payne 1+2 remake and Control 2, Remedy has released a further statement to say that it’s cancelled one of its projects, the “premium multiplayer cooperative game” that started life in November of last year and was codenamed Kestrel.
The company says that “Codename Kestrel,” which was itself already the rebooted version of a previous project and still in the early concept stages with a small team, is being taken off of the table in order to put the focus on its other games. Kestrel was being co-financed and would’ve been co-published by Tencent, and the decision was made by both companies.
“Codename Kestrel showed early promise, but the project was still in its early concept stage. Our other projects have advanced well and are moving to the next stages of development, and increasing focus on them provides us with benefits,” said Remedy’s CEO Tero Virtala of the news.
Remedy Entertainment cancels game project codename Kestrel as it focuses on existing franchises.
"Codename Kestrel had a small team working on the early concept stage of a premium cooperative multiplayer game."https://t.co/2smW7P2Q8F pic.twitter.com/Qz9LZiEo4a
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“We can reallocate talented Kestrel developers to these other game projects, and many of our support functions get additional focus on their operations. This is yet another means to ensure that our game projects continue advancing well. I want to thank our Kestrel development team. Though we decided to discontinue the project for wider Remedy benefits, our team has done good work and provided us with valuable learnings. I also want to thank Tencent for their partnership so far. They have been very professional and supportive.”
Though Remedy notes this means a lesser need for recruitment going forward, it doesn’t seem as though any job losses have come of this change, with developers instead reallocated to other projects.
The full statement from Remedy on the cancellation of Codename Kestrel and the reallocation of staff and resources can be found here.
