Rockstar's Max Payne 3 Could Cost $105 Million to Develop, Require 4 Million Sold to Break Even

Rockstar and Take-Two today finally confirmed Max Payne 3 for release in March 2012 (which means it's still a part of the current fiscal year). This is good news for Take-Two's stock, but it's also encouraging for fans anticipating GTA V next year after April. Analysts believe Max Payne 3 should do well, and according to Sterne Agee's Arvind Bhatia, it's going to have to since it may require sales of about 4 million units to break even.

[donniebaseball]

Holy cow! It better be worth it! Well, even if it flops, at least Rockstar has GTA V to fall back on.

[Blaze929]

I think this will be in the same boat as LA Noire where the turn around sales just don't make up for the amount of time and money put into the game's development. And this is only to break-even. Now profiting is another situation.

But if Red Dead Redemption could sell 4mil plus, Max Payne 3 will prob reach 4mil in a year or so though. Can't believe this was supposed to be out Winter 2009 though.

[evrfighter]

that's too much risk for a franchise that is not as popular as it once was.

If they manage to sell this to the investors I expect to see this studio downsizing

[JellyJelly]

$105 million?? That's like $104.5 million more than Activision spends on each COD game.

[Blaze929]

lol....

[Jamzluminati]

ROFL!

[NYC_Gamer]

I'm not buying this mainstream edition but sure millions of other gamers will

[Rage_S90]

*cough*hipster*cough*

[omi25p]

how do you know its main stream when all we've seen are screen shots

[GTRrocker]

All games are mainstream now (hits bongo really fast while wearing black sunglasses)

[Shaman]

You know once R* PR machine starts,it will sell triple of that.

[xruiner89]

As great as the Max Payne games are, this WILL NOT sell like GTA,RDR or LA NOIRE. I'd be surprised if it sells 4 million.

[donniebaseball]

If it gets decent reviews, that plus the power of big marketing could push it over the top.

[sirdrake]

Red Dead Redemption was a new IP and that sold 4 million units. Why wouldn't a game that has a solid existing fan base, and should be an excellent game, not sell any more than a brand new IP? I think it definite has a chance provided it is as good as RDR and as many of us want it to be.

[UnSelf]

Red Dead wasnt a new IP brother

[nolifeking]

Seems like somebody skipped Red Dead Revolver.

[jbiz330]

RDR was a rehaul of the franchise. If Max Payne is able to pull off a similar feat then.. yeah. 4 million is plausible. Especially by next year when there will be MILLIONS more consoles out (both PS3 and Xbox's) than when RDR came out in 2010. Plus we all know how strong the marketing is usually for Rockstar Games. They should be fine.

[sirdrake]

Sorry you are correct. Totally forgot, my bad. Like jbiz said though, it was a rehaul of the franchise. Similar to what max payne 3 will be.

[FAGOL]

No one knew Red Dead Redemption would sell as well as it did.

You can't predict sales before we have any info on the game itself. All we have been shown is a few screenshots.

[maniacmayhem]

This is how this gen development will cost. It will only get bigger as the new consoles hit.

Soon game development will be just like the movie industry.

[zireno]

I have never played a Max Payne game before, are they really great?!

[GSpartan777]

Yes they are. In fact it's one of the most memorable games series from the previous console gen.

[brew]

They were at the time. But going back to play them now may be a little weird though. Max skates around on the floor control wise and it feels a bit odd. They are still really fun to play and are memorable though.

[zireno]

@GenoZStriker, brew

Thanks guys, I'm gonna keep an eye on this one then and see if I can get my hands on the old games :)!!

[JellyJelly]

It's made by Rockstar Vancouver, the team behind Bully. Been some time since they made anything but hopefully that's because they've spent all that time working on Max Payne 3 :)

[Shubhankar]

Hole crap, that's... :o

[JohnnyMann420]

You guys are crazy. It WILL sell 4 million... no problem, most likely within 2 years.

[GSpartan777]

I honestly think the game could sell that much. It has quite the fanbase and people have been anticipating this game for time now. Combined with Rockstar's history of good games and their PR/marketing, breaking even (4 million units sold) should absolutely be no problem. Of course the game has to be good though, to be realistic.

[pr0digyZA]

Once gameplay videos come out I'm sure people will suddenly become interested in it, and fans like myself will buy it no matter what.

[Braid]

I'm getting one on PS3, so that leaves 3.999.999 willing customers.

[omi25p]

im getting it for 360 so thats 3.999.998 customers

[MasterCornholio]

Big budget. I loved the first Max Payne cant say anything about the second because i haven't played it. So i am hoping that they will do a good job with it.

[Ares84]

We will see how the game will be like. So far, I'm not that interested. For $105million it better be a superb and huge game.

[DigitalAnalog]

You need at least 4 million to break even a budget of 100+ million?

So, what exactly is happening to those games that sells 1 or 2 million with less than half a budget?

-End statement

[BinaryMind]

Was a ridiculous waste of money if the developers didn't manage to come up with something more original than Bullet Time.

[josephayal]

no way MEH!!

[xtremegamerage]

The way rockstar games are hyped up, would not surprise me it would sell 8million,lol.

[BlmThug]

RDR sold 11 Million unit to date and R* has amazing pr skills.

[Apocwhen]

I can't wait for some new Bullet time action.

[GTRrocker]

For the record: LA Noire sucked and was the only time in my entire gaming life that I was ever disapointed in a Rockstar game enough to sell it to gamestop for $12 after it was only a week old. I didn't even want it in my fucking collection.