Remedy’s Max Payne Remakes Are ‘A Big, Big Project’ Says Creative Director Sam Lake

Ahead of the release of the developer’s long-awaited horror sequel, Alan Wake 2, Remedy Entertainment creative director Sam Lake revealed just how big of an undertaking the upcoming Max Payne remakes are for the company. Though rumors of remakes of the iconic third-person shooters had swirled for years, it wasn’t until 2022 that Remedy Entertainment confirmed that remakes of Max Payne and Max Payne 2 would be making their way to PC and consoles.

Bringing the Max Payne games up to modern standards is a “big, big project.”

As part of an interview with VGC discussing the upcoming release of Alan Wake 2, Lake shared his brief thoughts on the challenge of updating the Max Payne games for modern audiences and hardware. Responding to a question about the significance of the long-awaited remakes, Lake stated that attempting to bring the pair of iconic third-person shooters up to modern standards represents a “big, big project” for the company. Although Remedy has yet to reveal many details about them, CEO Tero Virtala said earlier this year that production on the Max Payne 1 & 2 remakes has “progressed well.”    

The interview also touched on how Remedy plans to find a balance between sequels and original IP moving forward. Although upcoming sequels like Alan Wake 2 (which is slated to be Remedy’s longest game yet) and the Max Payne remakes stick with the company’s existing IPs it hasn’t given up on creating new content. Lake told VGC that upcoming Remedy titles like Vanguard show that, despite its success with sequels, the company isn’t slowing down when it comes to growing its ever-expanding Remedy Connected Universe.

It may still be a while until gamers are able to get their hands on the remakes of Max Payne 1 & 2, but luckily Remedy has plenty of games in production to keep players happy in the meantime. In addition to Alan Wake 2 and the co-op PVE shooter Vanguard, the studio is also working on two new entries in the Control franchise. With so many games in development at Remedy spread across so many different genres, fans of the studio’s unique blend of style and substance should have no problem finding something to play for years to come.