Remedy CEO steps down following FBC: Firebreak’s disastrous launch

Tero Virtala, CEO of Control developer Remedy Entertainment, is stepping down from his position immediately. The news comes in the aftermath of a disappointing launch for FBC: Firebreak, the Finnish studio’s first foray into multiplayer gaming. Virtala will be replaced on an interim basis by Markus Mäki, Remedy’s chief product officer and one of the studio’s co-founders. The studios says it will “initiate a search process for a new CEO immediately.”

Virtala took over the role back in 2016, and was a key figure behind Remedy’s transformation over the past decade, as it shifted from a work-for-hire studio to one that developed multiple projects simultaneously and owned and published its own games. This period was highlighted by the launch of Control in 2019 and the long-awaited sequel to Alan Wake in 2023.

Firebreak was meant to be a major part of this transformation, a self-published spinoff of Control that was an attempt to marry the studio’s worldbuilding and storytelling with a live-service co-op shooter. However, the combination didn’t win over players and, despite launching a major update in September, two weeks ago Remedy issued a profit warning due to “weak sales” of Firebreak.

Part of the impetus behind Remedy’s shift to a multi-project studio — in addition to Firebreak, it’s also currently developing Control 2, remasters of Max Payne, and a mystery game — was to help it deal with potential flops like Firebreak, though Virtala told me ahead of the game’s launch that, even still, each release was still significant for the independent studio. “Every single game is highly important for us,” Virtala told The Verge. “There is no question that we are not fully insulated. But we are less dependent on any single game than we used to be.”