Alan Wake
Alan Wake told the story of a writer haunted by his own writing. Remedy Entertainment

Remedy Entertainment's resident writer Sam Lake has stated definitively that the studio's next game will not be a sequel to its cult classic psychological thriller Alan Wake – but fans shouldn't give up hope that the series will one day return.

Venture Beat asked Lake about Remedy's two new projects: one being the development of a story campaign for the sequel to CrossFire, a popular shooter in South Korea, the other being a project of Remedy's own that some fans have assumed is Alan Wake 2.

"It's not," he told the site. "It's worth saying that aloud. This is a brand new thing. It's not Alan Wake 2. Should I repeat that one more time?"

"That being said, I haven't lost hope when it comes to making more Alan Wake at some point. I'm still actively thinking about those opportunities as well."

The new project, which is codenamed B7, will be published by 505 Games and is being developed for PS4, Xbox One and PC. This makes it the studio's first multi-platform title since Max Payne 2 in 2003.

Lake wrote Max Payne, its sequel and Alan Wake, before going on to write and direct standalone follow-up Alan Wake: American Nightmare and the studio's Xbox One debut Quantum Break last year.

Earlier in the interview he discussed pitching ideas for an Alan Wake studio to Microsoft prior to the development of Quantum Break.

"After Alan Wake, we went to them and pitched our thinking at the time about what Alan Wake 2 could be," Lake says. "At that point they weren't interested in doing exactly that. They wanted to have something new. Also, they were essentially looking for us to create a new IP for them. Quantum Break is owned by Microsoft, obviously.

"Part of that pitch for Alan Wake 2, though – I already had a live action show as part of that idea. That part they really liked, and they asked us to retain it in this new thing that was named Quantum at the time and then became Quantum Break."

Quantum Break was part-video game, part-TV show, and was announced at the launch of Xbox One when the console's concept was more closely tied to the idea of it being an all-in-one entertainment device supported by Microsoft's TV wing.

Alan Wake has been a firm favourite with many people since it was first released in 2010. The original and American Nightmare topped 4.5 million sales, which are good numbers, but evidently not enough to drive development of a sequel.