Alan Wake Remastered Removes All Product Placement

Alan wake is a scary third person action game with spooky shadow monsters and weird characters. It also had a ton of product placements, including an Energizer-branded flashlight that you use in-game to ward off evil. Next month’s remastered re-release removes that and all of the other bits of weird product placement.

Alan wake was developed by Remedy Entertainment (they also developed the original Max Payne and Control) and released for Xbox 360 and PC in 2010. While the game played out as a solid third-person shooter, the storytelling and missions were delivered using a TV show format, with episodes dividing the game into sections and end-of-book videos teasing what happened and what was to come between each of those sections. It was also basically Twin peaks written by a mega-fan of Stephen King in a parcel in ways. But I loved it! And I’m really happy to see a remastered version of it, announced earlier this week at Sony’s PlayStation showcase, comes out next month.

This new version not only improves the visuals and cleans up the HUD, but it also makes some big changes to the content. Specifically, all real world product placement in the game is removed. According to ScreenRant, Remedy PR confirmed at the point of sale that all product placement seen in Alan wake have been deleted and changed.

This stuff appeared in a few different forms in the 2010 original. You can spot the Verizon billboards around town while playing. People also drove in branded cars, like Lincolns. And most notable was the Energizer Alan Wake branded flashlight giving way throughout the game, allowing the author turned video game star to fight the evil shadow monsters that plague the town of Bright Falls. Wake even finds Energizer brand batteries scattered around the world too. (I always thought this was weird because the batteries in this game drain in a matter of minutes. It seems like a bad way to advertise your product.)

If you are worried about the songs and fake tv shows being deleted, Remedy PR also confirmed that all of this will remain intact.

Alan Wake remastered releases October 5 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, and PC through The Epic Game Store.