Max Payne Remake sees "considerable progress" and has an Alan Wake 2 sized budget

The Max Payne Remake has just received a major development update from Remedy Entertainment. They have shared some exciting new details on the games production which fans will be happy to hear. All of this information has come from financial statements released today for investors by the Finnish game company.

Recap of the previous development update

It has been nearly two years since Remedy and Rockstar Games announced a next-gen remake of Max Payne 1 and 2. The first 12 months were quiet but things have begun to change. The previous update we heard from Remedy was back in October 2023. This is when the studio explained the “Max Payne 1&2 remake progressed into the production readiness stage.”

Remedy’s production readiness stage was estimated to last 3-6 months. It would also be the step before “Full Production” begins. On top of that, Remedy noted an “exceptionally well-organized team” had “gained clarity on the style and scope of the game”.

Remedy reveal new and positive development details

On Wednesday morning, Remedy shared their financial statement to investors covering the entirety of 2023. This was originally set to be released on February 9th but was delayed over contract negotiations.

Over the course of those 12 months, the company say they had five games being worked on. The Max Payne1&2 remake was the only one to be fully funded by an outside source; that source being Rockstar Games.

Since October, the Max Payne remakes, as expected, have “continued in the production readiness stage” according to Remedy. During 2023, the team working on the game “made considerable progress throughout the year”.

The company state that the Max Payne 1&2 remake project will share a “similar development budget as Alan Wake 2.” This sort of budget level will allow it “to be a major new game with great potential”.

As for how much the budget is, a Finnish analyst estimated the award winning Alan Wake 2 cost €70 million to make. 50 of that being actual development and the remaining 20 for marketing purposes. Remedy did specify the “development budget” was similar so we’re looking at around €50 million if the Alan Wake 2 costs are approximate.

Apparently, the long awaited sequel was Remedy’s most expensive game yet. The difference with remaking Max Payne is that Rockstar are paying for it all, not Remedy.

What’s next?

In this prepared statement, Remedy do not say if the game has moved onto full production yet. They do expect it to do so within the first half of 2024 though. Based on their game production template, we could hear it has moved into that state in April. Remedy’s next business review covering January-March will be issued on April 29th. We’ll be covering on our site as Remedy publishes it.

Listed under their Long-term business prospects section of the document, Remedy say “We work with a partner franchise Max Payne that was originally created by Remedy.”

As for more details on “Full Production”, this can take around 2-2.5 years depending on the polish needed and scale of the game. This means the Max Payne Remake is still a couple of years away yet. Below is a look at Remedy’s template for making games.

We look forward to more Max Payne news in the coming weeks and months. Let us know down in the comments below your thoughts on today’s news as well.

Catching up on this year’s news

Just last month, Remedy shared photos of their office which now has new Max Payne 2 artwork on the walls. Due do some changes in the artwork from the original game, fans have speculated that this might be the first piece of artwork from the remakes. You can learn more about this here.

Plus, Remedy and Take-Two Interactive got caught up in a controversy at the beginning of the year. Rockstar’s parent company filed a legal dispute over Remedy’s current logo despite being close business partners.

Thankfully, Remedy clarified the situation was “resolved amicably late last year” and was just a formality. Even so, the details of the story are interesting and you can check it out here.

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