'Max Payne 4' update: Why game won't likely come out anytime soon?

Fans of the gaming series have been waiting for more than a decade for the "May Payne 4" release date. The last game, "Max Payne 3," came out in 2012, but the series did not receive a new game since then.

But this seeming neglect does not mean that the Max Payne series was not popular in its time. One indication of a game's popularity is if a movie is made based on the game series, such as in the "Lara Croft" gaming series, which spawned a series of hit movies that starred Angelina Jolie.

Similarly, Max Payne also got a movie adaptation back in 2008. It starred Mark Wahlberg in the lead role and Mila Kunis as his love interest Mona Sax. While it was not as successful at the Box Office as the Lara Croft movies, the fact that producers were willing to make a big bet and bring it to the big screen shows just how popular the game was at that time.

The latest news about the franchise has been the addition of the trilogy to Xbox's backward compatibility library on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, according to Looper. However, Rockstar has been silent on the possibility of developing the sequel, "Max Payne 4."

There are a number of reasons why there's no news about "Max Payne 4" for now. First, the developer of the first two games in the franchise, Remedy Entertainment, is just too busy since handing over the reins to Rockstar's in-house subsidiaries for the third game.

It developed the 2019 game "Control," which has been a major critical and commercial success and is currently working on its sequel and a four-player co-op spinoff. The team is also working on "Alan Wake 2," which is scheduled for release in 2023, so it's safe to say that Remedy has its hands full with the various projects it is working on and probably can't focus on "Max Payne 4" right now.

Developing another "Max Payne" game might not be a priority for Rockstar Games for now. Sure, the company took big risks in the past and focused on several franchises, the company has now focused on "Grand Theft Auto" and "Red Dead Redemption" during the last decade and left other properties collecting dust.

It's hard to predict the future of the franchise at this point, with Rockstar not giving any hints as to what it plans to do with the series. Stay tuned, and be sure to subscribe for more "Max Payne 4" updates.