Back in February, Remedy appointed Jean-Charles Gaudechon as its new CEO following last year’s FBC: Firebreak flop. This quickly raised some eyebrows given Gaudechon’s tenure at EA, a game studio that’s had its fair share of controversies over the years thanks to its business practices. After all, Remedy are meant to be this quirky, Finnish game studio that does things their own, weird way, such an appointment felt out of step. But, in a recent interview, Gaudechon made it seem like he’s not about to “change the DNA” of a place like Remedy (even if he does still want to bring more money in by expanding in other ways).
Speaking to The Game Business, Gaudechon acknowledged the scepticism around his EA past, saying, “There’s been a lot [of talk] about EA. What does it mean to have someone that has been spent time at EA? And I completely understand the fear of, ‘is he going to bring methods that work for a massive company and crush the soul of a studio like Remedy?’”
From his perspective, he says that he was chosen for the role because he knows “exactly what Remedy is. And what needs to be protected, needs to be supported and needs to be grown. Remedy is one-of-a-kind. It’s a studio that has amazing creative drive… What I hope I can bring to Remedy is vision on where the company could go and where we could make some improvements. Who am I to change the DNA of a 30-year successful game studio?”
He even framed the reactions to joining the studio as a positive thing, noting how a number of industry peers and friends send him congratulatory messages alongside words of caution: “‘Don’t fuck it up.’ It was: ‘We love Remedy so much. Don’t fuck it up.’ That shows you how much people love Remedy.”
Yet a CEO is as a CEO does, meaning Gaudechon still floated around words like franchise, IP, and audience, saying the studio’s tentpole games like Control and Alan Wake “could give a lot more” and “need to find its audience much, much further than the current audience.” For Gaudechon, he thinks the way to do that is continue that strategy established before his arrival by growing these games through deals like the one with Annapurna, which will see film and TV adaptations of the studio’s output.
“[Our deal with] Annapurna goes into making our games, our franchises shine further and reach an audience that doesn’t exist today. It’s a pity, I think Alan Wake should have sold more. Control should have sold more. To me, that’s one of the first things we need to fix, even before trying to make more games to a certain extent. First of all, maximize the potential of the ones we have, because they’re incredible. And cross-media is going to help us do that.”
I mean, these adaptations could potentially bring in a wider audience, especially if done well. An X-Files-esque show about an agent at the FBC sounds like a potential winner. I just don’t really love the idea of having to make Remedy’s games any bigger than they currently are. Ah well, when has a CEO ever done anything wrong! I’m sure I’ve got nothing to worry about.
