Changes are underway for Remedy Entertainment’s core management team. The most immediate change is adding Mikael Kasurinen as co-creative director for the whole studio.
Previously the director on Control and its upcoming sequel, he’ll work with Alan Wake 2 creative director Sami Järvi to make games “aligned with Remedy’s strategy and operational priorities.”
Remedy’s previously called the Control and Alan Wake series key to its future, and CEO Tero Virtala welcomed Kasurinen to the management team. With him on board, Virtala said the studio now has a “needed focus” on the two franchises.
“Kasurinen and Järvi have worked together in a number of games,” he explained. “They have complementary world class skills [and are] the right type of creative guidance and support that all our game teams can benefit from.”
Further moves at Remedy
Come May 31, Remedy will lost its five-year COO Christopher Schmitz. Rather than find a replacement, Remedy is splitting his duties across other management members.
Prior to Remedy, Schmitz led product and business development at developers like IO Interactive and EA. For Remedy, his biggest contribution was help turning the Finnish developer into a multi-project studio.
Virtala highlights that in his statement, saying Schmitz “helped build the foundations of our multi-project model, and developing game project leadership. […] I want to warmly thank him and wish him all the best in his next endeavors.”
In 2020, Game Developer spoke with Kasurinen and narrative designer Brooke Maggs about building out Control’s supernatural world, which you can read here.