Remedy Entertainment, the original developer of Max Payne, announced a deal with Rockstar Games to remake the first two Max Payne games. It looks like Remedy Entertainment will be working on a remake of Max Payne and Max Payne 2, as the studio has a “development agreement” with Rockstar Games.
After the success of Remedy Entertainment’s first two Max Payne games, Remedy continued to try new things with the Twin Peaks-inspired survival horror game Alan Wake, while publisher Rockstar decided to create Max Payne 3 itself. When Remedy Entertainment approached Rockstar Games by asking them to remake the first two action games, they were “thrilled,” says Rockstar Games co-founder Sam Houser. The recently announced Alan Wake 2 also currently has no release date, although Remedy has committed to a 2023 release window. Remedy claims the remake will use Northlight, its own Quantum Break game engine, Control, and the upcoming use of Alan Wake 2.
Since Rockstar still owns the rights to all the games, original developer Remedy had to strike a deal with Rockstar to release the remakes as 2-in-1s. It’s unclear who will get the lion’s share, Rockstar or Remedy Entertainment, although we suspect it will be Rockstar since they funded the game’s creation. In other words, Rockstar funded the remake and published it. Rockstar is funding the development of the remake, and its budget will be “in line with typical Remedy AAA game production,” Remedy said.
Rockstar will finance the remake’s development budget, which will be “in line with Remedy Entertainment’s typical production of AAA games”, and once Rockstar has recovered development, marketing, and other expenses, Remedy will be able to receive royalties from subsequent game sales. Remedy approached Rockstar with the idea for a remake, and Rockstar co-founder Sam Houser was “passionate” about the idea, according to a statement from Remedy. Remedy said Remedy approached Rockstar for a remake and they were excited about the idea.
Originally released in 2001, the first Max Payne was the game that made original developer Remedy famous, a third-person shooter heavily influenced by the recent Matrix’s use of slow-motion more than any other game. It’s been over 20 years since the first Max Payne was released in 2001, and since then we’ve seen many games adopt Max Payne’s innovative “bullet time” feature – most recently at WolfEye Studios Weird West. The Max Payne Trilogy also topped the list of more than 70 games that Xbox added to its backward compatibility program as part of Xbox’s 20th-anniversary celebration last November.
