After Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne was released last autumn, its title sounded eerily prophetic. Despite critical acclaim, the sequel to Rockstar"s popular graphic-novel-inspired shooter barely broke NPD"s top 10 best-selling PC games. In February, Jeffrey L. Lapin, CEO of Rockstar parent Take-Two Interactive, went so far as to blame the publisher"s lower-than-expected Q4 2003 earnings on Max Payne 2"s lackluster sales.
Today, in Palm Beach, Florida, Lapin echoed those statements. "Max Payne [2] came out in November and did not do as well as we thought," he said. "In fact, it did fairly poorly compared to our expectations." However, Lapin surprised some by confirming Take-Two"s intent to make Max Payne 3. "There"ll be another Max Payne," he said in a presentation at the 17th Annual Bear Stearns Media, Entertainment and Information Conference. "I think we"ll take a few years to make the next one that much more spectacular is what we have to do. But it"s clearly a brand that everybody knows."