Remedy was ‘unsatisfied’ with FBC: Firebreak’s launch sales but says it has ‘a solid game to build on’

Remedy Entertainment says it was “unsatisfied” by poor launch sales of FBC: Firebreak, but believes it has “a solid game to build on” and can win players over.

The co-op PvE first-person shooter, set in the Control universe, was released on June 17 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC and is not only Remedy’s first full multiplayer game, but also its first fully self-published game.

In its half-year financial report published today, the publisher says that while the launch was a technical success because it reached over 1 million players in its first 10 days, this didn’t necessarily result in a financial success since the “majority of the players were Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 users”.

The game was released on both Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, meaning it’s unlikely many players bought the game full price on those systems. Instead, Remedy received “an initial accrual from subscription service agreements with Sony and Microsoft“,  a payment for putting its games on their services.

While Remedy would have been hoping sales of the PC version would have covered for low console sales, it instead noted: “On Steam, which was planned as the primary consumer sales channel on PC, the launch underperformed.”

The publisher says the initial feedback on the game was negative, but also says that over time it’s worked hard to turn this around and claims that players who have stuck with it are happier with it now.

“The game’s initial onboarding experience and mission structure resulted in high early player drop-offs and an influx of negative reviews,” it said. “As players spent more time in the game and we released updates improving the game, sentiment in reviews turned more positive.”

Overall, Remedy says: “Commercially, we were unsatisfied with the launch-phase consumer sales of FBC: Firebreak.” Despite this, it believes it can turn around the game’s fortunes over the longer term.

The road ahead for FBC: Firebreak – let’s talk about what we’re working on, and what to expect in our first major update in September.

🔧 https://t.co/lNZ28rPvT8 #FBCFirebreak pic.twitter.com/fOQNRvSW07

— FBC: Firebreak 🔻 Control (@ControlRemedy) August 5, 2025

“FBC: Firebreak was designed as a game that evolves over time,” Remedy said. “Despite the rocky launch, we believe we have a solid game to build on. Players who spent over an hour with the game reviewed the game mostly positive, showing us that the core experience of the game is entertaining.

“We have already rolled out patches and communicated on how the game will continue to develop. Looking ahead, a larger ‘Major Update’ in late September will be the next key step for FBC: Firebreak. This will be supported by targeted marketing activities, which we expect to drive interest in the title.

“We are committed to continuing to work on FBC: Firebreak, engaging with the community, and expanding the game.”

When FBC: Firebreak hit its 1 million players milestone ten days after its release, Remedy acknowledged on social media that it still had work to do improving the game, saying: “We know there is still a lot of work ahead of us, and we are super-motivated about it. We have a lot of exciting things cooking for Firebreak players. More about that soon.”

The game’s Metacritic score currently sits on 63, while its Steam user reviews are currently defined on the storefront as ‘Mixed’. Of the 1,557 user reviews submitted on Steam so far, 67% are considered positive.

According to SteamDB, the game’s start on Steam has been modest, hitting a peak of 1,992 concurrent players at launch and continuing to fall since then. At the time of writing, during the last 24-hour period the peak was just 24 players, and it hasn’t managed to hit more than 75 concurrent players at any point in the last month.