Alan Wake and Control developers Remedy Entertainment have announced that their untitled co-op shooter, the artist formerly known as project Vanguard, will no longer be a free-to-play game - largely, it seems, because the free-to-play business is looking a bit dicey. The game has been given a new codename to celebrate: Kestrel. It's still a co-op multiplayer affair, however.
The reboot follows an evaluation period during which Remedy and publisher Tencent discussed a proof-of-concept version of the game, as we reported last month. They've now kicked it back to the concept phase "due to uncertainties in creating a successful game [in] the rapidly changing free-to-play market and associated risks". A few members of the old Vanguard development team have moved to other Remedy projects, while the core leadership and certain select developers carry on with Kestrel.