Trademark for Alan Wake's Return is actually for a Quantum Break TV show

Like waking up from a perfect dream to rejoin an imperfect world, it turns out a new Alan Wake game isn't nearly as likely as it seemed. Remedy Entertainment creative director Sam Lake told Kotaku the "Alan Wake's Return" trademark application that surfaced last week is actually the name of one of Quantum Break's in-game TV shows, which explains why it still applies to "games software" as stated in the application.

If you were hoping to play more of Alan Wake's journey into the night, it's disappointing news. But you will get to see more of his story from the perspective of FBI special agent Alex Casey, who you may remember as the star of Wake's bestselling book series - which was itself an overt reference to Max Payne.

"Other than that, we are exploring possibilities and concepting different things [for Alan Wake], but lots needs to click into place for anything to happen", Lake said. "We will be the first to talk about it when there is something definite to talk about."

Then again, a fictional character (Alex Casey) based on another fictional character (Max Payne), both of whom are or at one point were portrayed by their actual creator Sam Lake, investigating the disappearance of his fictional creator (Alan Wake) is just about the most Remedy thing I can think of. So even if the possibility of a new Alan Wake game has flitted back into the shadows, at least we can look forward to that.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!