Control Resonant Launch: 2M Wishlists Ahead of Sept 24

Remedy Entertainment's next big release arrives in two days, and players are paying attention. The developer announced this week that Control Resonant has passed two million wishlists across all platforms, just ahead of the September 24 Control Resonant launch.

That number marks a sharp jump in interest. As recently as last month, the wishlist count sat at 1.5 million, so roughly 500,000 players added the game to their lists in about a month. For a new release from a mid-sized studio, that kind of acceleration in the final stretch is a strong signal.

The road to 2 million

The announcement came alongside a reminder of the launch schedule. Control Resonant releases on September 24 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC. Remedy also confirmed that pre-loads begin 24 hours ahead of launch on Steam, which puts them at 7 a.m. Pacific on September 23, giving players a full day to get the game downloaded before it unlocks.

The seven-year wait helps explain the interest. The original Control, released in 2019, built a devoted following for its surreal take on a secret government agency and its mix of gunplay and telekinetic powers. Its sequel has been one of the more closely watched releases on this year's calendar, and the wishlist milestone suggests the audience carried over.

Remedy described the new entry as its most expansive game to date, a claim that lines up with the bigger setting. Where the first game confined itself to the shifting halls of the Oldest House, the sequel lets the weirdness spill out onto the streets of Manhattan.

What the sequel is about

The story picks up seven years after the first game. The lockdown on the Oldest House, the brutalist headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, has been breached. That means the Hiss and the Mold, the two paranatural forces players fought in the original, are now loose in Manhattan. On top of that, a new threat called the Patterning has emerged, one that the developer's materials suggest could overpower both of them.

The change in protagonist is the other big shift. Jesse Faden, the Bureau's director and the first game's lead, is missing in action. Her brother Dylan, who spent the original game in a coma, wakes up and takes the lead role, driven partly by guilt and partly by the search for his sister. According to coverage of the release schedule from Gematsu and Pixel Twelve, Dylan's mix of melee attacks, gunplay, and paranatural abilities defines the sequel's combat.

Early reviews are strong

GamingBolt, which broke the wishlist news, also published its review and scored the game 9 out of 10. The outlet praised the combat, the art direction, and the environmental design, while noting that the game can take some time to get rolling. That pattern, a slow build giving way to a confident second half, will sound familiar to fans of the original.

The score matters because Remedy is launching into a packed week. Pixel Twelve's weekly roundup has September 24 also bringing Silent Hill: Townfall to PlayStation 5 and PC, alongside Dragon Quest XI S on the Switch 2, with EA Sports FC 27 landing the following day. Standing out in that crowd takes more than name recognition, and a 9 out of 10 from early coverage is the kind of thing that gets fence-sitters to commit.

What PC players will need

For those planning to play on PC, the system requirements deserve a look before launch day. According to GamingBolt's report, players aiming for 4K resolution at 60 frames per second on Ultra settings with path tracing enabled will need some serious hardware, and even then the game expects upscaling to be set to Performance mode.

That is not unusual for a Remedy release. The studio's games have a history of pushing PC hardware, and Control Resonant appears to continue the tradition. Players with mid-range rigs should plan on adjusting settings rather than expecting top-end visuals out of the box. The full requirements are listed on the game's Steam page, which GamingBolt linked in its coverage.

With pre-loads opening September 23 and the Control Resonant launch arriving September 24, the wait is nearly over. Two million wishlists later, Remedy's return to the world of the Federal Bureau of Control is about to find out whether the hype matches the game. For more from a busy week in games, see how Cole Palmer got a Twitch ban for streaming EA FC 27 early and how Kai Cenat's Iceland stream kicked off a new IRL travel series.