Remedy Entertainment PLC and Tencent have announced they will no longer work on the multiplayer Kestrel project. Remedy stated they want to focus on other game development projects in their portfolio. Kestrel was still in the early stages of development, and although CEO Tero Virtala saw potential in it, the studio has now changed its priorities.
It’s not uncommon for games to get canceled in the early stages; the cancellation of the Kestrel project seems like par for the course for Remedy. What’s not so fun is that this was supposed to be different than what we’ve already seen from the studio. Originally revealed in November 2023, Kestrel was a fresh start for a previous project known as Vanguard.
Both projects were funded in collaboration with Tencent for joint publication. The decision to cancel Kestrel means that Remedy can reassign skilled developers previously dedicated to this project to other games. This also means less hiring overall and a reduction in planned investments initially set aside for this multiplayer project.
“Codename Kestrel showed early promise, but the project was still in its early concept stage. Our other projects have advanced well and are moving to the next stages of development, and increasing focus on them provides us with benefits. We can reallocate talented Kestrel developers to these other game projects, and many of our support functions get additional focus on their operations. This is yet another means to ensure that our game projects continue advancing well. I want to thank our Kestrel development team. Though we decided to discontinue the project for wider Remedy benefits, our team has done good work and provided us with valuable learnings. I also want to thank Tencent for their partnership so far. They have been very professional and supportive.”
Remedy’s CEO Tero Virtala
Virtala expressed gratitude to the Kestrel development team and commended the insights gained from the project. He also thanked Tencent for their partnership and professionalism. It seems like a corporate announcement through and through. Unfortunately, we won’t see Remedy do something new, but we can understand if the company wants to keep working on its well-known stuff. We’ll have to wait and see if any similar information comes out.
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