Remedy is among the industry's most celebrated independent gaming developers, known for franchises like Alan Wake, Quantum Break, Control, and Max Payne.
The developer recently put forth its first major foray into PvE multiplayer content, with FBC: Firebreak. The game takes cues from popular similar titles like Left 4 Dead and Warhammer 40K: Dark Tide, wrapped in the absurdist sci-fi universe of Control, where anomalous physics and entities warp reality and even post-it sticky notes can form into lethal behemoths.
FBC: Firebreak launched into Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus this past summer, but has since failed to build a big audience for itself. The latest Steam stats for FBC: Firebreak suggest that only a few dozen players are live in the game as of writing, although many more may be playing the game as part of their subscriptions to Xbox and PC Game Pass.
Still, Remedy has acknowledged players' feelings about the game in a new post on Steam, while outlining coming changes.
Four weeks out from launch, Remedy says that "this is just the start" for FBC: Firebreak, noting that the game will receive its first major update in September, and that between now and then, players should expect reduced communications.
"So, before we go into more radio silence, let's talk a bit about what we are working on," Remedy explains. "While we want to provide you with detailed information on what's coming, the nature of game development is that things change frequently. Some features will make it, some won't, some will arrive later than planned, and some earlier! Giving away too much, too early when features aren’t entirely locked down can also get us into trouble. However, we want to remain transparent and keep you informed about what’s going to come. Even if it might change."
Remedy acknowledged that FBC: Firebreak's onboarding experience needs work, noting that many players leave the game within the first hour. "We’ve seen many players come into the game and leave within the first hour. And that’s because our first hour can be frustrating; you feel ineffective and confused as to what to do. This needs to be improved."
To that end, Remedy says that FBC: Firebreak will receive new narrative onboarding experiences to help players understand the world of Control, and how the Federal Bureau of Control operates in that universe. This will occur via a new playable tutorial, with new pop-up tips that will help teach core mechanics and the like.
Remedy is also taking a look at gunplay and balance. Guns will no longer have their "generic" upgrades. Instead, players will get the most powerful versions of their tools from the outset. To replace the more generic upgrade system, Remedy is adding mods instead that will change how tools work to help you customize your playstyle and grow in power over time instead. Remedy is also adding three new heavy guns to player's toolkits.
Additionally, Remedy is reworking the levels (known as Jobs) to focus on the more popular modifiers, while pruning the least popular. Existing Jobs will get updates, allowing you to tailor their length as well to accommodate player's time and availability. Remedy wants existing Jobs to feel more varied too and replayable, with plans to move key items around to encourage exploration and the like.
There will also be an all-new hand-crafted Job level, with three new zones, a new status effect, new enemies to deal with, and more.
All of this is coming in September, 2025, as Remedy continues to parse feedback from players and data from player behavior. Remedy says that beyond September, there will be another major update targeting the holiday season as well.
FBC: Firebreak has a ton of promise
The Control universe is ripe for a game like this in my view. The truly infinite ways anomalies can curate ongoing crises within the Old House and the FBC essentially means Remedy is limited only by their very sizeable imagination.
Live service games can be incredibly tough in today's times. Increasingly, the game industry is considering "availability" as the biggest threat to their businesses, as infinite games like Roblox and Fortnite continue to absorb entire generation's of player's time and money. Still, there has been some recent winners in this space. Warhammer 40K: Dark Tide, for example, enjoys a steady player base in the thousands, and got a big bump from its recent Adeptus Arbites class introduction. Remedy doesn't necessarily have the power of the Warhammer 40K franchise behind it, though, giving them a potentially steeper hill to climb.
When I tried out FBC: Firebreak, I saw the clear potential, but I felt called out when reading Remedy's analysis of their data. Like many players Remedy references, I bounced early on due to feeling a little underpowered versus some of the enemies I was battling. Setting up turrets took far too long, and by the time I had them set up, they'd either been destroyed or their positioning was no longer viable. I ended up just going back to Darktide.
Yet still, I think FBC: Firebreak has a ton of potential, and will personally be keeping a close eye on it.
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