Max Payne 3 confirmed

Take-Two Interactive openly blames Max Payne 2's slow sales for its lower than expected Q4 earnings last year, and, whether by its own design or through developer Remedy's own desire to break free from the franchise, it now looks like the inevitable Max Payne 3 will be handled by a different studio altogether.

"Max Payne came out in November and did not do as well as we thought," Lapin said this week. "In fact, it did fairly poorly compared to our expectations." However, in good news for fans of Payne's exploits, Lapin was happy to confirm that a third title in the series. "There'll be another Max Payne," he told the Bear Stearns Conference. "I think we'll take a few years to make the next one that much more spectacular," he added. Hopefully we won't see a premature showing at E3 then.

Following Lapin's comments, somebody purporting to be Max Payne 2 level design Mikael Kasurinen wrote the following on Shacknews.com: "FYI: We are not making Max Payne 3," although neither Remedy, Take-Two or publishing subsidiary Rockstar Games has made any comment on plans for the franchise. If Max Payne's journey into the night is to continue as we were told at the end of his supposed Fall, then it sounds like it'll continue in the hands of another team...