Remedy Entertainment isn't worried about Alan Wake 2 releasing around the same time as Assassin's Creed Mirage or Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
That comes from Wccftech, which asks communications director Thomas Puha if the team is worried about dropping the long-awaited sequel in the middle of a busy month.
"Well, there's always competition, right?" he says. "We really only worry about making the best game we can. That's what's ultimately the most important thing. And then the rest we will see."
Puha also confirms that the main story alone could take "over 20 hours" to finish. With the first game coming in at an average of 11 hours in length, we could be looking at more than double this.
"It depends on your skills," the communications director says, "but currently we are looking at over 20 hours." He went on to clarify that "the game is not quite done yet because a lot of the content is still going in," so this ballpark estimate could well increase come release day in October.
The 20-hour benchmark goes for both Alan and Saga's campaigns, which will intertwine as the game's narrative unravels. Our time will be spent playing as both the eponymous Alan Wake himself and the new character Saga, and from what little we've seen of her already in our Alan Wake 2 preview, we're convinced she's a brilliant addition.
The game will also feature a semi-linear structure, deviating from the episodic format of the first instalment that showed crime show-like cinematic recaps of previous chapters at the start of each one.
"Each character has their own set of missions, so they have their own story in any order after the beginning," Puha says, expanding on how our time will be split between the two protagonists. "Once you get to the end of Alan Wake 2, we're going to kind of force you to play it in a certain way."
Alan Wake 2 is set to launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X on October 17, 2023.
Alan Wake 2's Saga was just one of the biggest reveals of Summer Game Fest this year, with Fable and Avowed joining the ranks of our standout moments.
