Max Payne creator Remedy Entertainment has said that it “could come up with something cool” for a new instalment in the high-octane action franchise, should Rockstar decide to approach the studio again in the future.
Speaking with Metro, the studio’s creative director, Sam Lake, revealed that while the Alan Wake developer was not heavily involved in Max Payne 3, Rockstar did ask them to come on board as consultants towards the end of the game’s development cycle.
"We were playing the game and giving them feedback, and I had a nice opportunity of working with Dan Houser when he was creating the prequel comic book for Max Payne 3," he said. "But other than that we were not involved. I don’t know… if that kind of opportunity [to return to the series] did present itself I think it would be fun."
Remedy developed the first two entries in the Max Payne franchise during the PlayStation 2 era, and decided to sell the rights to the franchise to publisher Take-Two. As a result, Max Payne 3 was developed internally at Rockstar Games.
"From a creator’s perspective it was actually nice knowing that we had sold the IP to Rockstar after the first one, and part of the deal was to make the second one," added Lake. "So through that whole project I knew that in all likelihood this was the last Max Payne that we would make. So doing that and saying your goodbyes to that franchise had a lot of closure for me. But who can say, if something like that would suddenly happen I’m sure that we could come up with something cool."
Max Payne popularised the use of bullet-time in video games and was warmly received by critics upon its release in 2001, with the sequel following in 2003. To date, the franchise has sold over 7.5 million copies worldwide and also spawned a Mark Wahlberg-fronted movie adaptation in 2008.
Max Payne 3 was released in 2012 for PS3 and Xbox 360, although Rockstar has yet to confirm any plans for the future of the series.