Alan Wake developer Remedy is experimenting with ‘ongoing live multiplayer’ games

Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind Max Payne, Alan Wake and Quantum Break, is going to try something new: multiplayer games.

The Finnish developer announced a new development effort named Vanguard today, which it describes as a “new internal development team with a slightly different focus.” Remedy’s Vanguard team will be small and designed with a “startup mentality,” and it is tasked with developing “new types of ongoing live multiplayer game experiences.”

“The aim is to make groundbreaking video games that uphold the Remedy Entertainment name,” the developer said. The studio is hiring for roles in the Vanguard group.

Remedy Entertainment is mostly known for its narrative-driven single-player games, making this something of a shift for the studio. It’s currently working on Control, a supernatural third-person action-adventure game due out in 2019. Remedy’s also working on CrossFire HD and CrossFire 2, Smilegate’s online shooter series, but the studio’s focus is on the story mode for those games.

Remedy’s move into what sounds like games-as-a-service multiplayer games sounds similar to another Finnish studio’s recent change: Housemarque, which recently unveiled its competitive shooter Stormdivers after moving on from arcade-style experiences.