The house of Payne
Max Payne is back. Remedy Entertainment announced today that it’s partnering with Rockstar Games to develop remakes of the first two Max Payne games for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Both Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne will get packaged as a single title. Development is being handled by Remedy, using its own Northlight game engine. Rockstar will be handling the development budget, which today’s statement says will be line with a “typical” AAA-game production for Remedy. (The statement is also here via Wario64, as the site went down with the announcement.)
The agreement between the two will allow Remedy to start picking up royalties after Rockstar has recouped its costs. The project, according to Remedy, is currently in the concept development stage.
The agreement mirrors the original deal for Max Payne: developed by Remedy, published by Rockstar. And it’s honestly kind of nice to see Remedy, hot off the success of games like Control, getting the keys to Max Payne again.
Back in the saddle again
The original games, Max Payne in 2001 and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne in 2003, were major parts of the ’00s era in games. The noir visuals, third-person shooting, and very dark storytelling were all quite memorable. Rockstar took over for Max Payne 3, retaining elements like ‘bullet time’ while adding their own grit to the mix.
With the projects Remedy has been putting out, this news is certainly exciting. The developer has several projects in the pipeline now, ranging from Alan Wake 2 to a multiplayer Control spin-off. Remedy also recently opened a new office space in Sweden, offering more workspace for its developers.
Rockstar’s track record with remakes has recently been a little spotty. But with Remedy at the helm and development going towards a big production for next-gen systems and PC, Max Payne could potentially look pretty dang good. Maybe we’ll even see some hi-def Sam Lake.
