A financial report released this morning by Remedy Games confirmed that the Max Payne remake (a modern-day combination of Max Payne 1 and 2) is “in full production.” The report suggests that the game entered this state in the April-June 2024 quarter.
In addition, Control 2 has entered the pre-production phase, indicating that the game will be gradually developed and eventually released. CEO Tero Virtala also pointed out that “development expenses have increased compared to the same period due to the high development costs of the Max Payne 1&2 remakes”. This actually means that the company is fully committed to the development of the remakes, and these losses are due to the fact that the capital tap has been opened and cash has flowed to the creation of the remakes.
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As for the company’s overall financial situation, things are better than last year, with revenue up 16%. The operating loss was still $3.2 million, which sounds a bit bad, but it’s also an improvement of $1.6 million compared to last year. So things seem to be moving in a positive direction for Remedy.
The report also mentions projects in active development, though this section of the report begins with a brief sentence mentioning the cancellation of multiplayer game Project Kestrel. The report notes that the cancellation of this game allowed resources to be focused on “other game projects,” which include the aforementioned Max Payne remake and Control 2.
Max Payne Remake is clearly on its way to the next major milestone of being a playable, working product from start to finish. Control 2, on the other hand, is in early development and has just passed a simpler milestone. It’s a working version that has key features and works properly, which is an important step before the game reaches a similar stage as Max Payne Remake.
An important background to this report is that it was released after Remedy gained control of key IP. The report states: “With full control of the IP and publishing rights for Control and Alan Wake, we can choose how to bring our future games to market. We have been weighing self-publishing and related business models and discussing different partner publishing opportunities.” The report also states that in the future they will focus on expanding their own IP, including Max Payne, Alan Wake and Control.
Finally, Remedy expects higher year-over-year revenue growth rates going forward, with the report noting that current revenue growth is dependent on decisions to “self-publish and/or select new publishing partners for the Control franchise (codenames Condor and Control 2)”.
This should be great news for Remedy fans, as it not only indicates significant progress in development internally, but also suggests a brighter future ahead (as long as future games like the Max Payne remake, Control 2, and Codename Condor perform well.) In these financially unstable times, especially among larger publishers, an independent studio in this position can only be a good thing.
Are you excited for the Max Payne remake? Do you think Remedy is on the right track? Let us know below!
