Remedy provides updates Max Payne remake and Control sequel

In brief: Remedy Entertainment as part of its third quarter earnings report provided an update on the progress of some of its most anticipated projects including remakes of the first two Max Payne games.

Remedy developed the first two games in the popular neo-noir third-person shooter series, Max Payne (2001) and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (2003). The original was one of the first games to feature the flashy bullet-time effect made popular by The Matrix a few years earlier. Max Payne 3 would not arrive until 2012 courtesy of Rockstar, and lacked much of the tone and style that defined the earlier entries.

In mid-2022, Remedy revealed it was remaking the first two games to take advantage of modern hardware. They are being developed as a single title for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC, and will utilize the proprietary Northlight game engine. The surprise announcement generated so much interest that it crashed Remedy's investor website.

In its third quarter report, Remedy said the remake has progressed to the production readiness stage. The developer noted they have gained clarity on the style and scope of the game, but stopped short of announcing a release date or pricing.

Another highly anticipated project, Control 2, is not quite as far along. Remedy said this project is still in the proof-of-concept stage and that they expect it to remain in this state for at least another few quarters. "The plans for this sequel are ambitious, and we have seen good progress both in the designs and in the game build," the developer added.

Control arrived in 2019 for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows. The paranormal action-adventure game was later ported to additional platforms and received two paid expansions. Control 2 was officially announced last November and is being co-developed with 505 Games.

Remedy Entertainment's latest release, Alan Wake II, hit the scene last week and is off to a solid start. The PS5 version currently has a score of 89 on Metacritic with a user score of 8.6 out of 10. Pricing is set at $49.99 over on the Epic Games Store.