Remedy's latest annual report includes, among many other things, very brief new information about Condor, the codename for a multiplayer spin-off game based on Control.

Condor was announced in 2021 as a four-player PvE game set in Control's very strange world. At the time, the game was being developed with publisher 505 Games, but things changed earlier this year when Remedy reacquired Control's management rights from 505 in a deal worth €17 million.

Since then, not much has been heard except that work is continuing, but the new financial report (via RPS) sheds a little more light on what players can look forward to.

"After the Hiss invasion, the oldest mansion has been sealed off. The last remnants of the trapped Federal Administration must rise up and push back to regain control. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And everyone is needed.

While Remedy's previous works have focused on a single character or a small but impressive supporting cast, "Condor" seems to take a different approach: instead of the supernatural powers of "Control" boss Jesse Faden, players of "Condor" will be able to use the and will likely take on a more anonymous and mundane role, relying on "equipment and each other" to clean out "Control's" headquarters, Oldest House, and avoid being turned into interdimensional pulp.

Remedy also stated that Condor will be a "service-based fixed price" game. This category was described as "premium games with a low initial price but a long tail of revenue through updates, game expansions, and potential microtransactions."

"For these games, the key differentiator is the post-launch live operational phase, which is meant to keep players engaged for years," Remedy said. This model is used, for example, in the multiplayer spin-off game of "Control," codenamed "Condor."

While it may not be popular with gamers who are tired of the live service model, Remedy said it could become "an increasingly important commercial model" in the future. And if implemented properly, it can work without being disruptive. 'Helldivers 2' proves that.

The bigger question, however, is how this seemingly very different kind of game will be received by Remedy fans: I quite enjoyed the combat in "Control," but generally speaking, I play Remedy games not because they are good shooters but because they are weird and creepy shooters with cool characters. Could a pick-up game with a bunch of strangers have the same vibe?" It's possible - "Helldivers 2" proves it - but I can't help but wonder if certain aspects of the magic will be lost in the shift to a multiplayer focus.

One thing the financial report does not tell us is the release target: it says that Condor is "in production readiness" at the end of 2023, which means that Remedy has "fully understood the requirements to scale the project to full production, the production pipeline design and implementation" has been completed. Remedy is now "looking forward to moving into full production in 2024," CEO Telo Virtara said. In other words, we are still waiting a while.