Control Resonant is shaping up to be Remedy's commercially most successful game ever. Atte, back then during the Q2 interview, we got to take a first look at that Control Resonant. Back then you managed to play it for an hour. I myself managed about half an hour too. While the build was still downloading, we couldn't quite use the whole hour. Now that you've had the chance to play the game properly over the weekend, what are the vibes and how did it compare to those estimate expectations that we started outlining a bit back during Q2?

Yeah, indeed, right there on Thursday at 5 PM when this basic version... This was the official release date, so I immediately started playing at 5 PM, meaning I managed to hammer out a solid 30-plus hours by Sunday evening. Not playing and not sleeping at all definitely feels like work too. Yeah yeah, I mostly played during the day, so let's say. Lately I haven't played enough to grind 11–12 hours a day, so you definitely hit a wall there. After that, there's nothing left. You have to do something else. But even at that point, I would have felt like playing more, but physically and mentally I just couldn't take any more.

But now I've actually played through the main story, and still quite a bit. There are side quests there, and I must say, those too. I am definitely still looking forward to them because the few side quests I already had time to play are not just filler material. Real thought has been put into those as well, making them fun to play. Overall, I have to say as a baseline. I already liked the original Control and have liked it. First Alan Wake 2 and now this Control Resonant too, so. It really landed well. It really resonated with me, so it was.

Um, although at first I wondered when they started talking about the game that this is going to be more of a hack and slash where you get right up in the enemies' faces with this dual character. And quite a lot of that bashing around, so I wondered how that would feel. But I must say it certainly felt good once you got into it. Especially as the character develops during the game and you get a few new tricks for them, those feel pretty neat. And then on top of that, what has been built into the combat, certain sound design elements for instance. Have been included as well. Every now and then it really hit you. Oh wow, now when you hit just right, the actual action side felt great.

The story is also, of course, in Remedy's style. The world of Control is indeed very peculiar and strange. It includes that kind of vibe. I liked the story too, and it kept me hooked. And then I must say that the way the world is now designed, that... Now we are there in Manhattan, so it is quite... I really have to tip my hat to the level designers for how well they made it work and how gorgeous it looks. But then also how they play with gravity there, that it doesn't involve too much. I won't spoil anything of course, but just like how my own head still feels a bit dizzy trying to figure out which way is up in that world, and then you just think about how it was designed so that those guys got it to work so well, so I'm sure a lot of time went into that on Remedy's side, and huge thanks for that. Thanks for the great gaming experience to the whole Resonant team! I liked the overall package, and so do many other players now that they've gotten to play it and see what kind of reviews the game has received.

Speaking of sales figures and player counts, on the Steam platform there is now a peak of around 43,000 concurrent players. To put it in some perspective, we could talk about a real hit game if the figure was closer to a hundred grand. But those 43 grand. That is by no means a bad number either.

No it certainly isn't, exactly.

These are always a bit tricky. You can find all kinds of different multipliers and ratios online for how much a game sells when you have a certain number of these concurrent players, but they are all a bit... Of course every game is unique in itself, and it a bit depends on how they go. E.g. Do those player numbers go into huge spikes, like is there some specific market for example. Some games that are on the Asian market, if they are super popular, those spikes might be huge, but then when people there go to sleep, they drop down, so at least for now looking at the Steam statistics, Resonant's concurrent player count stayed pretty evenly between around 3,000 and 4,000 regardless of the time of day. There is that small wave motion whenever people in the US are awake and playing, but relative to that, it would look like it's pretty well all over... Players can be found all over the world right now.

After all, there have been investments towards China and Brazil too now. For instance, localizations were done there in a bigger way than ever before. So it's quite hard... Hard to say for sure. I just published that small update today, but relative to my estimates, it feels at least right now that we are probably in roughly the same ballpark with these player numbers. We don't have exact visibility yet, keeping in mind that Steam is only the PC platform. On PlayStation at the same time, the game has received very good reviews. It keeps hovering in the top ten on sales charts all the time, for example. In the US, or basically every day since launch it's been right there, might it be around number six. And then you know what kind of giant games are at the top of that list. So, it is selling well, but the exact amount, we don't have exact visibility until we get some more information. And then from Remedy's side on the subject. But it looks good.

It was cool to notice during the weekend too. Several people on the forum had also spotted that even on Steam, Resonant... For a while it was literally the best-selling game in the world, so that's something. That is indeed... That is pretty cool. A fine achievement indeed, so.

When was the last time a Finnish game was at top 1?

I really can't say, do you, when? When has there been such a situation on Steam? I must say, it's great, and putting it in perspective, especially since Remedy makes these games with a considerably smaller budget. Still, what Resonant's budget is now, probably somewhere between 50 and 60 million, remembering that. There are these previously released ones, like this Wolverine game for example. There were rumors that its budget would be something like 300 million and things of that type. We are talking about a completely different scale. Then you are there. Practically selling better on some days right now, so that's genuinely an impressive achievement, and.

Through, this is still the first self-published game of this scale.

Well, now it is indeed the first time that Remedy is self-publishing an AAA game of its own core specialty, so at least in light of that, it looks good. It certainly looks good, though perhaps as for the player numbers, since if you think of Remedy as an investment, there has always been a lot of talk about how every game like this carries that hit-game option. If it were to become an absolute viral sensation or if, for instance, the critic reviews had been up there at +90 or 90, it would have been able to reach an even larger mass. Because Remedy still has that certain fanbase, which in my opinion has expanded over the years. But then if there were a truly massive viral hit, so that people would talk about how that game could... It would even seem that, wow, this might actually sell, say, 10 million copies in three years. Whereas expectations are maybe around 5 million, so based on this beginning, something of that scale is perhaps not happening at least. Or that we don't need to raise expectations to that level, as it now appears that things are roughly going along the lines of what was thought previously.

So it's a strongly selling game, but that sort of mega-hit option doesn't seem to materialize, which of course, the probability of that is always small, but it's always there. And of course as an investor everybody surely hopes that it would come true. That is partly the thrill in a gaming company, if a new big golden egg comes out, that's kind of what makes these very interesting. But right now it also looks like the game is selling well and surely. Revenue is coming in nicely, and that now. That was really important in Remedy's investment case, that this Resonant launch succeeded. So in that sense the risk levels regarding it have lowered, because if... If we remember again, if this hadn't succeeded, then publishing and financing subsequent projects ourselves would have been considerably more challenging. Now it looks like this is starting to generate good returns for Remedy, and that enables investments into upcoming projects. And at the same time the popularity of the Control game brand is growing, and that kind of builds the foundation for Remedy's future games, so in that sense we are currently in a good scenario heading forward, moving in the right direction. That is important.

You've surely thought about different scenarios in your head beforehand. Okay, now we've at least avoided a flop. That is crystal clear. Perhaps we're then going pretty much according to the base scenario. Maybe we didn't get that absolute super hit, at least based on current knowledge. How much then, if we turn our gaze a bit further ahead? Not just at this year's sales figures, but in the long term. Well, those reviews. One would think they at least support the idea that if players genuinely consider it a really good game, then sales would stay a bit steadier and not crash right away after the first few weeks.

Yeah yeah, it is. That is really important, because still in these, if we think about Remedy's previous games as well, they sell... they have all essentially been these critical successes, so they keep selling for several years across those digital marketplaces. And now Resonant again has the runway to sell well for a very long time, and that too. Naturally when you have good reviews and players praise it, you don't have to immediately slap red markdown tags on it and put it on a huge discount to get copies sold. Naturally those will be utilized, because it's typical that. That's certainly how you always get a temporary boost. It's worth running such good campaigns, but in a way good reviews support the average price across the board.

The best advertisement is surely players praising it to other players, that now this is actually what you alluded to. It was even starting to get recorded that, well, even these pirate folks have said that now support Remedy, because this is a good game.

Yeah, that was indeed, for me that was over the weekend. The most amusing news was indeed that those who download games illegally, there was talk on their forums too that hey guys, support now, there really is... Remedy is worth supporting, so buy this game instead of downloading... That perhaps tells something about the fact that it feels like Remedy has the player community's sympathies on its side, and for good reason, because this entire industry has also been criticized a bit at times because big AAA games are starting to be. They don't take many risks, they are quite similar. You roughly know based on data what works. Companies make quite similar things, and you can understand that from a risk management perspective, because if you have projects, especially with an American company or many others, when you're talking about budgets in the hundreds of millions, you don't want to take huge risks because if it goes wrong, then it's a pretty big financial catastrophe. So in that sense, Remedy always strives to do something new and different, which many people also appreciate.

Naturally then when you have many things that are also very weird, it doesn't necessarily always appeal to the broad audience in the same way. But there is. It feels like it is there nonetheless. There is a specific target audience that appreciates it in a big way. And it feels like it is growing all the time too.

Exactly. Hey, final summary. Over the weekend, you actually updated your target price and investment view, increasing the target price by a couple of euros and changing your investment view from a buy recommendation to an Accumulate recommendation. So why is that?

Yeah, well, we've been on the buy side for a while now, and the share has already risen quite nicely from this year's lows, and there was. I think earlier it was clear that investors weren't giving weight to our investment view on Control. It was this all along: Control Resonant is going to sell well. Of course, until now, there has been uncertainty about how things would turn out in the end, but our investment view has been that it will sell, and the share then started to move a bit when various information began to emerge. Even with critical reviews and other things, the share has steadily crept upwards and sort of started to price in the fact that yes, this is probably going to turn out to be a pretty successful title. And now that we've received some data showing that this seems to be happening, meaning at least no revisions have been made to our current estimates at this stage. But it now looks like we are probably roughly in the right ballpark, at least regarding this title at the moment. Although uncertainty still remains, estimate risks have decreased.

At the same time, the share has risen, so then naturally, before the launch. There is sort of the idea that, well, what if the hit game option comes from here. And now that has sort of faded away, at least temporarily. Of course, it's still hard to say where the sales will actually land since we are still in the very first weeks. Right now, player feedback is very positive, so let's see how long it stays there. Will it go even more viral, or will more and more... Even now, it feels like there are quite a few different gaming influencers who have been hyping up the game. Some of it is definitely paid marketing, but there are also plenty of organic game enthusiasts, so let's see how the sales ultimately develop in the coming months. But sort of, perhaps right now, that specific small option that could have blown the bank in a big way. That is gone. But at the same time, we are on the path of good sales.

So I think still with these sales. Well, if you look at the earnings estimates for the coming years, if they are roughly met, I don't think the share is demanding-priced even now, and that is always in the eye of the beholder, of course, that the market value is now around 260 million, there is some net cash position, but nevertheless, the enterprise value is well over 200 million. There are now two good game brands: Alan Wake and Control. How much weight do you give to the fact that it is... This is partly a gaming company where valuation is a bit of an art. Art rather than science. But I think the momentum is still in the right direction now, meaning there is a well-selling game under our belt. Next up is this Max Payne remake. A pretty good anecdote about that was that Rockstar Games. They have over 20 million followers on X, so they also highlighted it now, retweeted. Or congratulated Remedy on X, so it gets quite a lot of visibility from that as well. You don't often see that kind of thing from that studio. Of course, there is now this collaboration regarding the Max Payne project. That is now surely coming, presumably sometime next year. Now, of course, GTA VI is coming from Rockstar first, so it's hardly going to be launched at the exact same time. Max Payne, but that is the next big new game launch driver for Remedy's shares.

At the same time, there is this third yet unknown project, which is now probably at least in my opinion. Then the sequel to Alan Wake, because Alan Wake 3 then. It progressed to this production readiness stage during the latest quarter, meaning full production will be reached there soon too. That could then be a year from now, a year down the line. From there, sometime at the end of 2028. So there still is. Now, this Control is starting to show up in the figures over the next few years. And then even more new game launches. In that sense, I think there are still positive drivers, and with this valuation too, I think it's worth staying positive on the share, seeing how the drivers develop, because we are still quite early on here. So now we will keep following what Remedy itself says about the game's sales and then potentially calibrate estimates accordingly. In that sense, it's worth all investors calmly buying the game and starting to play it. There's a lot to do, so maybe it's worth enjoying it in a bit smaller portions rather than all in one weekend. Of course, that works too, but I'll have to continue with those side quests myself in the near future, as they have been a really enjoyable gaming experience.

We will stay tuned to see how those sales figures develop. And actually, I'll ask one final question: when you get home this evening, will you be firing up Control Resonant?

Well, I suppose I have to.

At least one.

One mission.

Let's play. Yes! Hey, thank you for these comments and everyone have a great continuation of the autumn, and remember to read the research. Make good stockpickers!