Last year Max's wife and child were murdered, after that his best friend and mentor went down too. Then came the vengeance and killing of thugs en masse. See, it's not wise to piss off a guy whose instincts are so finely honed that he can seemingly slow the passage of time (bullet time) and dispatch lethal lead with few repercussions. At the end of the game Max had killed pretty much everyone and was taking a ride in a nice cozy police car, his blood lust satisfied, but his heart still bitter.
Expected sometime in 2003 and assumedly for multiple next-generation platforms (no specific systems were mentioned in the release), Max Payne 2 is quite the lucrative property. So lucrative in fact that Take-Two has purchased it and all things related to it fro some $10 million dollars (even the shoelaces and souls of the actors who voiced various Payne parts).
Kelly Sumner, Chief Executive Officer, Take-Two:
- "A critical component of Take-Two's corporate strategy is to control the intellectual property rights to our key brands and as a result, build the most value for our company. Max Payne has been one of our most successful product franchises to date. The ownership of this top-selling brand allows us to broadly capitalize on the continued strength of the product on multiple platforms, and extend the brand with exciting sequels as well as providing opportunities for extending the brand to other forms of entertainment."
Additionally, Scott Miller, Chief Executive Officer of 3D Realms commented,
- "This is a precedent-setting deal for Take-Two, Remedy and 3D Realms - the first time in our industry a highly successful IP alone has changed ownership hands. This deal validates our strategy for developing strong character-based games. Take-Two benefits tremendously by having full control of the Max Payne brand going forward and being able to properly leverage it to its full potential."
As tight-lipped as 3D Realms is about its products and those related to it, don't expect to hear anything substantial on Max Payne 2 for sometime now.