Remedy has announced a development partnership with Rockstar Games to remake the first two Max Payne games.
In an announcement (on the company’s investor portal?), Remedy announced that it’s reinvigorated its long-dormant relationship with Rockstar Games, which published the first two entries in the series: Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.
A third game, Max Payne 3, was developed and released by Rockstar Games in 2012. It unfortunately saw disappointing sales numbers, sending the series into dormancy.
In a world where the words “remake,” “reboot,” and “remaster” can all refer to very similar products, it’s worth noting that Remedy has explained it is re-developing the two games using its in-house Northlight engine. It also noted that the combined games will be “the same size as a typical Remedy production.
Remedy also took the unusual step of sharing financial details from its deal with Rockstar. Though not specific, it stated that it has a “royalty opportunity” with Rockstar Games that will trigger after the publisher has recouped its development, marketing, and other costs for distributing and publishing the remake.
It’s worth noting that Remedy’s development operations are really scaling up. The game is working on new Control games, a new Alan Wake game, and more.
The studio has the financial chutzpah to back up that ambitious schedule though. It recently accepted a 3.8 percent investment from Tencent and announced the opening of a Swedish subsidiary.
And if you want to revisit the Max Payne series, the games have been are backwards compatible on Xbox.