“The music licenses for Alan Wake are expiring. As a result, the game is going to be taken out of physical and digital retail. Alan Wake’s American Nightmare will stay in retail. We’re having a 90% off “Sunset Sale” for Alan Wake on Steam May 13th through the 15th, 2017.”
The unfortunate but appreciably straight-to-the-point post appeared today on Remedy’s Alan Wake forum. The music licensing for the original Alan Wake is expiring and since Remedy didn’t negotiate the original license they have no immediate way to renew. As a result, the original Alan Wake and its DLC will be removed from sale on Steam and Xbox platforms on Tuesday, May 16th. Though not clarified by Remedy this will presumably see the game delisted from GOG.com as well.
In a post by Polygon, Remedy’s head of communications, Thomas Puha, added that “Microsoft and Remedy are looking into renegotiating the music licenses, but there’s nothing more to comment on that for now. Obviously having to remove the game from stores is rather unfortunate. So, we figured, let’s discount the game heavily and those who have not bought Alan Wake yet, here’s your chance to grab it on Steam.”
The original forum post lays out a few more details on the sale and confirms that the digital-only pseudo-sequel, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, isn’t going away… yet. The original Alan Wake is also available on disc for Xbox 360 and download codes continue to be sold on Amazon.