Last April, it was announced that Max Payne 1&2 are getting remade with help from Rockstar Games. Now, studio Remedy Entertainment has said the project is in the next stage of development.
Hot off the recent success of Alan Wake 2, a recent note to investors outlines a number of titles Remedy is currently busy with. While Control 2 is still in the “proof-of-concept stage,” Max Payne has “progressed into the production readiness stage.”
Non-developers like me don’t fully understand what this entails, but it sure sounds like things are moving forward for the remake. The note goes on to say that the studio has “gained clarity on the style and scope of the game” and is confident it has an “exceptionally well-organized team working on it.”
Bringing the Payne once more
Released in 2001, the first Max Payne entry was notable for its gritty, noir storyline and Matrix-inspired bullet time mechanic. It was also only the second game by Remedy Entertainment, but it certainly put them on the map.
Following the 2003 sequel, the series went on hiatus until Rockstar took over the IP for the third installment, which was released in 2012.
We still don’t know when the remake of the first two games will see the light of day, but progress is coming along, it seems. We know that both Max Payne titles will be releasing “as a single title” that will launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
With the warm reception Alan Wake 2 has received since launch, a lot of attention is on Sam Lake and the team at Remedy to see where things go from here. Many reading this will no doubt look forward to a modern retelling of the bleak story about a man whose name basically means “a large amount of agony.”
