Remedy Entertainment has discussed its hotly anticipated Max Payne 1 and 2 Remake, revealing it has a similar development budget to the recently released Alan Wake 2.
Remedy is working with Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption company Rockstar under a new publishing agreement to remake the first two Max Payne games for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. Remedy is handling development while Rockstar is fully financing the project. The Max Payne remakes are developed on Remedy’s Northlight game engine, the same engine used to develop Control and Alan Wake 2.
The original Max Payne games were also a result of a partnership between Remedy and Rockstar, with Remedy handling development and Rockstar Games publishing. Rockstar went on to develop Max Payne 3.
Remedy has yet to reveal the development budget of Max Payne 1 and 2 Remake or Alan Wake 2, but Finnish analysts estimated Alan Wake 2’s total budget at €70 million ($75 million), with €20 million of that dedicated to marketing.
Reporting its financial results for the fiscal year, CEO Tero Virtala said Alan Wake 2 “has already recouped a significant part of the investments made by Epic Games Publishing” after selling over one million units by the end of 2023. Alan Wake 2, which went on sale on October 27 as a digital-only release across PC via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, is the fastest-selling Remedy game.
“As Control proved, a great quality game can have excellent longtail sales and we expect this to be the case with Alan Wake 2 as well,” Virtala added.
As for Max Payne 1 and 2 Remake, Virtala said its development team “made considerable progress throughout the year.” “Max Payne 1 and 2 remake is going to be a major new game with great potential, enabled by a similar development budget as Alan Wake 2,” Virtala said.
Max Payne 1 and 2 Remake, alongside Control 2, and Condor (a four-player co-op spin-off of Control), will advance to the next stages of development during the first half of 2024. None of the games have a release date.
“With the refined multi-project model in place, increased focus on Remedy core strengths and the dedication of almost 400 Remedians, we are thrilled with a great lineup of upcoming game launches,” Virtala concluded.
One game that’s proved troublesome is Codename Vanguard, renamed Codename Kestrel after a reboot. “The requirements for a successful new free-to-play game have clearly increased during the past years,” Virtala explained. “Despite the promising progress during the first half of the year, we decided with Tencent that the potential was not there. Kestrel returned to a concept stage.” As a result, Remedy wrote off Vanguard’s development costs, negatively impacting the profitability of the studio by €7.2 million ($7.8 million).
“We have two established own franchises, Control and Alan Wake, which are linked through the Remedy Connected Universe,” Virtala said. “Growing and expanding these franchises will be a key part of our future. In addition, we work with a partner franchise Max Payne that was originally created by Remedy.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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