Gamers have long wondered about the apparent link between Alan Wake II’s Sheriff Tim Breaker and Quantum Break protagonist Jack Joyce – and new DLC expansion Night Springs only complicates things further. So, how are Tim Breaker and Jack Joyce connected?
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Tim Breaker and Jack Joyce’s Connection, Explained
Officially, the only connection between Alan Wake II‘s Tim Breaker and Quantum Break‘s Jack Joyce is that they’re both played by the same actor, Shawn Ashmore. While the Alan Wake games share continuity with another Remedy Entertainment franchise, Control, Quantum Break technically exists in its own, entirely separate reality. Remedy’s creative director, Sam Lake, confirmed this in a 2023 Entertainment Weekly interview, in which he positioned Quantum Break and the Max Payne titles as outside the Remedy Connected Universe (or RCU) that Alan Wake and Control belong to.
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That said, there are clues in Alan Wake II that Tim Breaker and Jack Joyce have more in common than just Ashmore. Notably, some of Breaker’s dialogue strongly hints that he’s an alternate universe incarnation of Joyce (hence their near-identical appearance). Many gamers have also noted that Tim’s name is apparently a play on “time breaker” – a nod to Jack’s superhuman abilities in Quantum Break. Alan Wake II‘s Night Springs expansion lends further credence to this theory, as Ashmore plays a fictionalized version of himself in a multiverse-themed episode sub-titled “Time Breaker.”
So, is Breaker a multiversal variant of Joyce? Only Lake and the team at Remedy know for sure!
Why Isn’t Quantum Break Officially Part of the Remedy Connected Universe?
Apart from the implied connection between Sheriff Tim Breaker and Jack Joyce in Alan Wake II, Quantum Break features several explicit references to Alan Wake and Control. For example, two copies of Alan’s novel (one signed by the author) appear in the game. It also includes multiple graffiti tags that read “AWE” – a shoutout to Control‘s Altered World Events. This begs the question: Why isn’t Quantum Break an official Remedy Connected Universe installment? Two words: licensing issues.
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Unlike the Alan Wake and Control franchises, Remedy doesn’t own the rights to Quantum Break. These are held by Microsoft, who published the Xbox One version of the game back in 2016. As a result, Remedy is understandably reticent to (and, in some instances, legally prevented from) weaving Quantum Break‘s characters and story into the RCU proper. On the plus side, in the EW interview, Lake suggested future Remedy titles will continue obliquely referencing Quantum Break.
Quantum Break is currently available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Windows.
Published: Jun 11, 2024 11:51 pm