Max Payne pushed to autumn 2010

By Robert Purchese Published 4 December, 2009

Mafia II promised in "first half" of year.

Take-Two has pushed the released of Max Payne to the second half of 2010, sometime between the start of August and the end of October.

Payne's third outing had been promised earlier in the year.

Nevertheless, Take-Two's 2010 schedule is encouraging as BioShock 2 (9th February) and Red Dead: Redemption (30th April) are poised for release earlier next year.

The preliminary Q4 2009 earnings report (full digest expected later this month) also confirmed a "first half" 2010 launch for Mafia II.

Take-Two shares were down, however, and the company does not expect to achieve its goal of "profitability" this fiscal year nor next, reports the Associated Press.

Max Payne 3 will be developed in-house by Rockstar rather than by series creator Remedy, and leave New York for Sao Paolo, Brazil. Max is also older and bald, but still has Bullet Time to slow the action down to granddad pace. The game's in development for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. There's plenty more information below.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Rayn #1 2 years ago

    Nooooo

  • Santino #2 2 years ago

    i hope mafia 2 is as good as it looks to be.

  • DonnieDarko333 #3 2 years ago

    So many games out till about May 2010, it's a good idea i think! Though i hope we see Mafia 2 sooner rather then later! I'm guessing a March release? Seeing as we've known about it much longer then RDR.

  • Hantheman #4 2 years ago

    Exciting.

  • Murton #5 2 years ago

    It's interesting the way that everyone is moving their big releases to months like May and September, which are traditionally quiet months in the release calendar in order to avoid having to compete with the big monster releases. Of course as this strategy becomes more popular we'll end up with heavy hitters getting released all year round, good thing for gamers certainly but how will the publishers adapt to the new calendar and how will it affect their income and therefore investment in future titles?

    As for the Max Payne delay, it doesn't really matter as the game was already too far away to be overly excited about anyway and as we all know, when Rockstar delay a game it's always for a good reason and the game always proves to be worth the wait.

  • el_pollo_diablo #6 2 years ago

    I'm quite looking forward to this. I loved the first one all those years ago.

  • kongzi #7 2 years ago

    maybe they're giving it a redesign, cause people got so hysteric over the new looks? Half a year is about long enough for Max to grow some of that hair back.

  • the_mtfr #8 2 years ago

    I will never understand how come they will not achieve profitability, even when each and every one of their games is a multi-million super-hit. What the fuck are they doing with the money? Except Mafia 2, none of those games have had a long development cycle. So it only means that the dev cost for Mafia 2 was so huge (in development for 6 years or so?) that it drags the total down. Anyone has a more reasonable explanation?

  • Artemus #9 2 years ago

    @kongzi

    Yes maybe they'll use the extra time to make an actual Max Payne game.

  • Eraysor #10 2 years ago

    I really hope Max Payne 3 stays true to the series and doesn't make it all trendy and hip.

  • davisorle #11 2 years ago

    Mafia 2 is going to be for sure the best of the kind graphically and techwise. No other game of the genre has destructable walls etc. And from the beta stages grphics looked already sweet eitherway. Hope the gameplay delivers cause i loved the first afia. And Saboteur is cool cause it reminds too much of Mafia..

    Max Payne, I will say it. The fact that Rockstar is making it conserns me. Rockstar ever since they made GTA fully 3d I have seen no serious improvements and GTA4 I never even bothered to finish. Lame and repeatable crap over and over... So im afraid Rockstar will not offer anything new with Max Payne 3. At least Remedy showed their teeth fully with the recent Alan Wake ingame videos. Freaking sweet. Wish Remedy was working on Max Payne 3. Id be more confident about it instead of worrying they are about to ruin a long waited sequel to such an awesome game which left a mark in gaming history, like it or not. Max Payne did it before Matrix. ;)

  • khaz #12 2 years ago

    @davisorle

    Err, Matrix 1 came out in 1999, Max Payne in 2001.

  • Spuzzell #13 2 years ago

    THERE'S NO SUCH FILM AS MATRIX 1!

    It's just 'The Matrix' ffs. I hate it when people do that.

    I'd never experienced bullet time in a game before Max, I'm pretty sure it was the first implementation in a game. In fact, 'bullet time' is now the stock phrase for slowing down time in a game, and bullet time comes from Max Payne.
    Edited by 1 at 05/12/09 @ 12:15

  • hiddenranbir #14 2 years ago

    Max Payne 3 is, sadly, going to be a pile of bollock.

    Agreed. Just what more s*** can Max go through that could even be close to the prequels?

  • YoungPayters #15 2 years ago

    max payne is gonna be bald? eh

  • zisssou #16 2 years ago

    I have huge expectations of Mafia 2.

  • lolife.se #17 2 years ago

    Oh, why do they insist on calling it Max Payne...