The rights of Control are now in the hands of its creators, as Remedy Entertainment has purchased them for over $18 million dollars from 505 Games

As announced on Remedy Games’ investor page, the full rights to the Control franchise, which includes the original Control, Control 2, and its multiplayer spinoff, Condor, have been purchased by the studio from 505 Games. Initially, Remedy partnered with 505 Games to publish Control, giving them the rights over the IP.

They purchased the rights for €17 million, or roughly $18.4 million USD. Remedy has outlined everything included in this transaction, including the termination of their publishing agreement with 505 Games.

• Termination of Agreements: Publishing agreements for Control, codename Condor, and Control 2 are immediately terminated by mutual agreement.
• Reversion of Rights: For Control 2 and codename Condor, all publishing, distribution, marketing, and other rights licensed to 505 Games revert to Remedy with immediate effect. 505 Games will continue as the publisher of Control through a transition period ending December 31, 2024, under the terms of the original Control publishing agreement. In addition, 505 Games continues to administrate existing B2B deals for Control until their agreed expiration dates. After the transition period and the expiry of these B2B deals, 505 Games will have no future royalty or other rights to Control.
• Purchase Price and Cash Flow Effect: The maximum purchase price for the transaction is approximately EUR 17 million, which equals the amount that 505 Games has paid for the development of codename Condor and Control 2 to date including a minor premium. Remedy is entitled to set off certain receivables from the purchase price and, therefore, the cash flow effect from the transaction will be clearly less than the purchase price. Remedy will pay the net purchase price in three cash instalments during the next twelve months.  

Remedy’s CEO Tero Virtala had some words to share on the announcement

“Ever since we signed up with 505 Games in 2017 to develop and publish Control, we have enjoyed a good partnership in building Control into a successful game that has sold over 4 million units and generated shareable net revenue of approximately EUR 100 million to Remedy and 505 Games. As part of Remedy’s long-term strategy to have more ownership over our business and the IPs we have created, we have gotten back all rights for Control and the in-development Condor and Control 2. Having complete ownership over the Control franchise gives us the freedom to decide the best path forward. We will consider our options carefully, knowing that Control is considered an attractive franchise by many partners. Condor and Control 2 have both progressed well in recent months and we expect these projects to reach their next development stages during the first half of 2024. The development of Condor and Control 2 will continue normally when we consider the best publishing, distribution and financing model for these projects.”

Tero Virtala continues, “As we amicably part ways, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the 505 Games team for our partnership over the years and for helping to establish Control as a gaming franchise with a lot of future potential.”

As Virtala comments, having the rights to their own game will now allow full freedom to do as they please with the IP, whereas before they needed to approach the publisher with things they wanted to do.

This is fantastic news, as it puts ownership back into the hands of the creators. With how creative the team got with Alan Wake 2 (review here), this probably means they’ll be able to get crazier with ideas while being able to develop at their own pace. I for one cannot wait to see where this ends up going, and we wish the studio the utmost success.