A financial report released by Remedy Games this morning confirmed that Max Payne Remastered – a modern combination of Max Payne 1 and Max Payne 2 – has entered “full production”. The report shows that the game entered this state during the April-June 2024 quarter.
In addition, Control 2 has entered the production preparation stage, which shows that the game is gradually being developed and heading towards release. CEO Tero Virtala also pointed out that “due to the higher development costs of the remakes of “Max Payne 1” and “2”, development costs increased compared with the same period.” This essentially means it’s moving full steam ahead with development of the remake, and those losses stem from the money faucet turning and cash flowing toward its creation.
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As for the company’s broader financials, things are looking better than last year, with revenue up 16%. The operating loss was still 3.2 million euros, which sounds a bit bad, but it was 1.6 million euros less than last year. So, things appear to be moving in a positive direction for Remedy.
Although this section of the report begins with a brief sentence about the cancellation of the multiplayer game Project Kestrel, there are also notes on projects that are in active development. The report notes that the game’s cancellation allows resources to be focused on “other game projects,” including the aforementioned Max Payne remake and Control 2.
Max Payne Remastered is clearly on its way to the next major milestone of becoming a playable and working product from start to finish. Control 2, on the other hand, is in a much earlier state of development and has just passed a more obscure milestone. It’s a working build with key features that are working, and an important step before the game reaches a similar stage to the Max Payne remake.
An important context for this report is that it was released after Remedy gained control of key intellectual property. The report states: “By fully controlling the IP and publishing rights for Control and Alan Wake, we can choose how to bring future games to market. We have been weighing self-publishing and related business models, as well as discussing different cooperation Partner Publishing Opportunities”. It also noted that future focus will be on expanding the intellectual property rights they own, which include Max Payne, Alan Wake and Control.
Last but not least, Remedy expects year-over-year revenue growth to improve in the future, with the report stating that current revenue growth depends on the decision between “self-publishing and/or selecting a new publisher” for the Control series of games (codenamed Condor and Control 2). .
This should be great news for Remedy fans, as not only does it indicate significant progress in internal development, but it also opens up broader prospects for the future (as long as future games like Max Payne Remastered, Control 2, and Codename Vulture did a great job). In this time of financial uncertainty, especially within large publishers, it can only be a good thing for independently owned studios to be in this position.
Are you excited for this Max Payne remake? Do you think Remedy’s development prospects are good? Let us know below!
