Alan Wake 2's Leaked October Release Date Is Official

Considering how good the original was, it was criminal to think we'd never get an "Alan Wake" sequel. After a full decade of waiting for an expansion to the brain-boggling horror mystery, Remedy Entertainment finally announced "Alan Wake 2" in 2021. We've been riding the wave of a vague "2023" release expectation for what feels like ages, but patient gamers got some relief just a few days ago when word of an October 2023 release escaped secrecy.

It didn't take long to get confirmation on that rumor, with Sony confirming an October 17 release date for "Alan Wake 2" during its PlayStation Showcase broadcast today. Not a PlayStation person? Don't worry — the original "Alan Wake" was an Xbox 360 exclusive title, and though Sony has jumped ahead as the advertising partner for the newest release, you'll be able to play it on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.

The "Alan Wake 2" trailer was short, perhaps too much so, but we can see it leans into the dark and eerie mood of the original. Once again, light seems to play a big part in your ability to navigate your surroundings and fight off the nightmarish threats hiding around you. This was a central theme in the original game, the remaster of which we reviewed in October 2021.

Matthew Porretta will return to voice the character Alan Wake, but it appears you'll be playing some portions of the game as a new female protagonist — an FBI agent, apparently — in a direct story continuation. Whether you'll be able to play as the titular character wasn't clear. And yes, this game is also tied into the same overarching Remedy universe that "Control" is, but there aren't heavy links between the two games that would require you to go back and play it (although you absolutely should).

The trailer doesn't offer a long thread to figure out where the story is going from the original, which saw Alan Wake battling shadowy figures from a story of his that he had no recollection of penning. We can at least glean from today's announcement that the locale is still very much rural, Alan Wake remains alive (in one form or another), and the writings continue to haunt not only him but others he wrote into the story.