Pirates are massively calling on people to support Remedy by buying Control Resonant

Pirates are showing an unusual amount of solidarity with developers this time – several have said they plan to actually pay for Control Resonant to help Remedy through a rough patch.

The game launched today, but cracked copies had already leaked online a few days earlier. Still, piracy forums and Reddit threads have picked up on a curious trend – some users are openly urging others not to download the game illegally, and to buy it instead to support the developer.

Remedy is well known as the maker of Max Payne, Alan Wake, Control, and Quantum Break, but its games often find relatively niche audiences despite their cult status. Even so, the studio's recent releases haven't sold especially well – Alan Wake 2 took over a year to turn a profit, and support for FBC: Firebreak lasted even less time than that.

Amid uncertainty over Remedy's future, and a growing sense that the studio really needs Control Resonant to succeed, plenty of pirates have taken to forums to say they'll make an exception for this particular game.

– One of the very few games I'm going to be buying, Remedy are on the brink of bankruptcy, this is their make or break title, I love their games and gotta do what I can to keep them afloat.

– I wasn't planning to buy it but now I feel like I should. I like Remedy. They do good games.

– Yeah same here. Remedy makes amazing games, that's a studio that deserve my money, and I hope they continue to make more games.

– I feel like this is one of the games which you shouldn't pirate if you can. Remedy makes unique, innovative games, they need this funding.

– I mean if you're going to compensate the team outside of Steam for playing their game that's one thing, but pretending that because you need to eat gives you the right to steal a video game is ridiculous.

Not everyone agrees with that take, though.

That's great idea, but this is a piracy reddit. Agreed, I gotta eat so this is being pirated but they do deserve success.

Back in August, Jean-Charles Gaudechon, who took over as Remedy CEO in March, said Control Resonant had racked up 1.5 million wishlist adds across PC and consoles, and ranked among the top three most pre-ordered PlayStation games in the U.S., Germany, and Brazil.

Beyond Control Resonant, Remedy is still working on its Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes, a project that's been in development for a while now. The studio also has an unannounced title that it says has reached "production readiness."