Stephen King allowed Remedy to use a quote pro bono

"Stephen King once wrote that 'Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there's little fun to be had in explanations; they're antithetical to the poetry of fear.'

In a horror story, the victim keeps asking 'why?' But there can be no explanation, and there shouldn't be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it's what we'll remember in the end. My name is Alan Wake, I'm a writer."

This is the first thing Alan Wake says in his titular game from 2010, but using a quote from a famous author like Stephen King isn't always easy. Or cheap for that matter. Fortunately, the King of Horror is known as a really nice and generous person and he had no intention of making things hard on Remedy. Instead, he let them use the quote for free. Almost at least.

This was revealed in an interview over at Eurogamer, where Remedy's boss Sam Lake reveals:

"Creating the original Alan Wake, I really, really desperately wanted a quote from him to start it off. It's my understanding he wanted $1 for us to get the rights to use it. [It was] so very generous."

A really nice touch. If there will be some King related content in Alan Wake 2 as well remains to be seen. Alan Wake 2 launches on October 17 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X.