In 2025, the idea of releasing a paid online-only multiplayer shooter seems very risky, as we have seen many of them fail. But Medicine, the developers behind them Control and Alan Wakehave a plan to ensure that their first multiplayer game –FBC: Firebreak–succeeding and it does not seem Concordance or XDefiant.
Announced in October 2024, FirebreakFBC is a co-op FPS set in the world of Control. This is Remedy's first online multiplayer game, and while it looks pretty cool, that might not be enough. A fire breakwill not be free-to-play, entering a crowded market full of established and popular free-to-play shooters like Marvel RivalsCounter-Strike 2, Fortnite, Overwatch 2, and Call of Duty Warzone. Medicine is aware of that, and plans to be made A fire break highly accessible at launch.
In a recent interview with Radar gamestreatment Communications director Thomas Puha explained that the studio wants to lower the entry barrier A fire break to get as many people playing on the first day as possible. One big step is to get more people to play FBC: Firebreak will launch on both Game Pass and PS Plus sometime later this year.
“This lowers the barrier to entry to try the game, as millions of Game Pass and PlayStation Plus subscribers will have access. Of course, that's a bit scary because we hope to have as many players during the launch window, and we hope that the game will hold up,” said Puha.
“It also means that there is financial support and marketing support for the game from both first parties, which is crucial – especially since Remedy is self-publishing this game across all platforms.”
A big part of the plan to keep A fire break from burning out in weeks or months, like Concordance or XDefiantto release the upcoming shooter on both Steam and Epic. Remedy's last two games only arrived on the Epic Games Store, so this is a move for the studio and will provide a larger pool of potential players. A fire break at launch. Medical plans for sale A fire break as a “mid-priced” shooter and not a full $60 or $70 game, which will help it build an audience faster on PC.
The Alan Wake studio also committed to making sure A fire break it has full cross-platform compatibility across consoles and PC.
And another important part of the Remedy plan is to keep it FBC: Firebreakthe minimum specs on a “reasonable” PC. Alan Wake 2 it was a very beautiful game, but it pushed computers and consoles and caused performance problems. The goal is to avoid that with A fire break.
“We will still have great graphics and visual effects, everything you expect from Remedy, but in a multiplayer experience like this, the frame is king as well as the responsiveness of the controls,” explained Puha.
Although there are no guarantees A fire break able to succeed where so many other online shooters have failed, it's great to see a studio being smart and realistic about the video game market. It would be nice if we could assume that great games will always sell well but that's not true, and Remedy seems to be well aware of that, and is trying all anything to avoid the next big multiplayer flop.
FirebreakFBC arriving sometime in 2025 on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
.
