THE CRUNCH
Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games and lead writer on Max Payne 3, says he bears much of the blame for the game's disappointing reception and sales. Speaking to IGN, Houser said that while he loved the design, including its structured, film-like pacing and on-screen text flourishes, "the consensus at the time was that people hated it". "Some people liked it; lots didn't. So we got it wrong, or I got it wrong. I failed. My bit was not a success," he said.
Houser tied the commercial side to his own work too. Publisher Take-Two attributed a $110m loss in one financial quarter mainly to the game's "lower than expected sales", and Houser acknowledged it "wasn't as successful as it should have been", adding that "a large amount of that failure was on me" as a decision-maker and writer, with fans particularly missing the writing of series creator Sam Lake.
That self-criticism is arguably harsher than the record warrants. Max Payne 3 was critically acclaimed at launch, and the stylistic choices some fans rejected are the same ones that set it apart from Remedy's earlier entries. Its third-person movement and gunplay are still counted among the series' best more than 14 years later.
Unlike the first two Max Payne games, the third was developed by Rockstar rather than original creator Remedy Entertainment. The two studios have since been reunited on a remake of Max Payne 1 and 2, which Remedy said two years ago had entered full production and is understood to be its next project.