Remedy Entertainment, the Finland-based developer behind popular video games like Max Payne, Control, Alan Wake, and Quantum Break, has reportedly canceled its project with China-based Tencent Games. The joint gaming venture between the two was ‘Codename Kestrel’ which has been in development since 2021.
According to Engadget, The project was earlier deemed to be a free-to-play co-op shooter video game. But back in November, the two companies decided to rename their project to ‘Codename Vanguard’ and planned to revamp it into a premium game with a strong, cooperative multiplayer component. It was decided that the game would utilize more of Remedy’s core strengths and repurposed versions of its assets and themes.
Remedy Entertainment in a press release published on Tuesday announced the cancellation of its joint-gaming project with Tencent. However, the reason behind the cancellation is not disclosed yet.
In the press release, Tero Virtala, CEO of Remedy Entertainment said that the cancellation of Codename Kestrel will allow the company to focus on its ongoing video game development projects and will reassign experienced developers from the Kestrel project. He also thanked Tencent for their partnership and support.
“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. 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,” says Remedy’s CEO Tero Virtala.
