Control DLC release date could lay the Foundation for an Alan Wake crossover
Remedy Entertainment's critically acclaimed Control could be setting the stage for Alan Wake 2 in an upcoming crossover.
Remedy Entertainment just confirmed the released date of the first DLC pack for its critically acclaimed Kubrick-inspired game Control with a new teaser trailer. The new DLC could be setting up some kind of connection to Alan Wake in future DLC via a crossover event.
Remedy released the new teaser trailer Thursday for the first paid DLC expansion called "The Foundation," and it's still quite shrouded in mystery. The teaser simply shows a new area with narration over it discussing about where the character Marshall could be. In the end, it mainly just reveals that the expansion will finally be arriving on all platforms on March 26, 2020.
What could this cryptic teaser mean?
"The Foundation will delve into the history of the Oldest House," reads a synopsis given by Remedy Entertainment back in September. "At the request of the ever-mysterious Board, Jesse must explore what lies beneath the Bureau as she returns order to the Foundation and the Oldest House itself. Expect things to get weird."
Remedy's Thomas Puha has also confirmed that there will be "an improved map and some other requested quality of life improvements," which Control's community on Reddit is excited about.
It's also entirely possible that this expansion will feature some major connections to a cult classic title that Remedy created back in 2010: Alan Wake. The main game of Control already contained some obvious references to the cult classic horror game, like a report for an Altered World Event that is very similar to the plot of Alan Wake.
When Control's second expansion was announced with the title "AWE" and its logo was revealed to have elements similar to Alan Wake's box art, many believed that the second expansion might be a legitimate Alan Wake crossover. The official description for the "AWE" expansion teases that it "will take Jesse into a new part of the Oldest House, the Investigations Sector, where the Bureau closely examines Altered World Events." There might be some kind of Object of Power related to the AWE that occurred during the events of Alan Wake.
Whatever plays out there could possibly wrap up any loose ends from Alan Wake or just outright tease a sequel. Whatever ends up happening, the groundwork for it will likely be laid in "The Foundation." Even though Control is a single-player focused game, it's receiving a surprising amount of post-launch support. It has already received a Photo Mode and the end-game Expedition Mode, and it will get at least these two expansions this year.
The Inverse Analysis
Alan Wake is an excellent game that's coming up on its 10th anniversary, and its fans have been begging for a sequel for a decade, so it's good to see that Remedy may finally be answering those requests. Outside of CrossFire's story mode and a mysterious multiplayer Vanguard project, we don't know what else Remedy Entertainment is working on right now. Because the studio has voiced interest in working on Alan Wake 2 several times in the past, and the connections to Alan Wake in Control have been so strong, it seems extremely likely that Alan Wake's story may finally be revisited soon.
