The Payne is back, under new management
The final shot was a trailer for what was to come next
In a thoroughly unsurprising move, Take 2 have confirmed that Max Payne 2 is under development. Rockstar Games and Remedy will be working on the sequel, which is expected to emerge from the rotten core of the big apple some time next year - a far cry from the extended development cycle of the original. Slightly less predictable was the outright sale of the Max Payne franchise to Take 2. In exchange for $10m in hard currency and the best part of a million shares, Take 2 now owns not only the Max Payne brand name and intellectual property rights, but also the controversial Bullet Time™ trademark and the respectable 3D engine behind the game. This also means that Take 2 now stands to get any licensing fees from selling Max Payne on to third parties, such as for television, cinema or "literary" productions. Cheap at half the price, we'd say. "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", according to 3D Realms CEO Scott Miller, who added that "this deal validates our strategy for developing strong character-based games." Related Feature - Max Payne review