Remedy’s Matias Myllyrinne to keynote GDC Europe

Matias Myllyrinne, Managing Director of Finnish-based Remedy Entertainment, the development studio behind the Max Payne series and the upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive Alan Wake, will deliver a keynote at this year’s Game Developers Conference Europe (GDC Europe). In his keynote address entitled, “From Max Payne to Alan Wake: Creating Intellectual Properties the Remedy Way,” Myllyrinne will share the key principles that have guided the company over the years in developing its games. He will touch on the company’s goal to remain small, independent, and passionate about creating new IP, and will try to answer a very important question: how can boutique European studios create large games, compete and succeed in a quickly changing and ever-growing games industry?

GDC Europe will take place August 17-19 at the Cologne Congress East Center in Cologne, Germany in conjunction with gamescom. To learn more about the keynotes and speaker line-up, registration and exhibits visit www.gdceurope.com.

Farewell: 3DRealms closing, says multiple sources

So here we are. According to multiple published reports, citing sources close to the company, 3DRealms has closed its doors. The company best known for the Duke Nukem franchise, the controversial Shadow Warrior and the eternally in-development Duke Nukem Forever, is closing its doors due to a lack of funding. Our requests for comments to 3DRealms and its publishing partner Take-Two remain unanswered as of this writing.

Deep Silver and Apogee Software have told Gamasutra that the Duke Nukem Trilogy for Nintendo DS and PSP compilation remains unaffected by today’s news. The Duke Nukem Trilogy features Duke Nukem: Chain Reaction, Duke Nukem: Critical Mass and Duke Nukem: Proving Grounds.

3D Realms was founded in 1987 by Scott Miller and George Broussard and is best known for Duke Nukem 3D and other Duke Nukem series of games for various platforms. The company is best known for the never ending development of its Duke Nukem 3D sequel Duke Nukem Forever. Thirteen years later, we have no idea how far along that game is - and now we may never know.

The company also produced Max Payne and Max Payne 2 with Remedy Entertainment - later selling the rights to the franchise to Take-Two for millions. The company’s other achievements include the recently released Xbox Live Arcade remakeof Duke Nukem 3D. The company also developed Shadow Warrior , published Human Head Studios’ Prey, a game that it began developing in the 90’s before it was cancelled by 3Drealms.

A visit to the official 3DRealms web site also reveals that the forum and all of its topics have been locked down. Today’s news is a bit shocking if you are a regular visitor to that web site, considering that the last update was on May 5th.

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Max Payne 3 Coming This Winter

It’s been more than five years since gamers last visited the world of Max Payne. Yeah, I know the Mark Wahlberg flick hit theatres less than six months ago, but is anyone really counting that? Either way, gamers have gone far too long without some bullet-time laced, comic-inspired, crime noir action. Well, it looks like Rockstar Games has decided to fill that void (and maybe offer a mea culpa to fans) by announcing today that Max Payne 3 is officially in development, eying a release before the end of the year.

Based on the little bits of information released this morning, it looks like things just never seem to get better for our angst-ridden protagonist. Max Payne 3 sees the titular hero retired from the police force, but still getting dragged into a world of corruption, violence, and most likely, slow-motion bullets. According to Rockstar, “Since leaving the NYPD and New York itself behind, Max has drifted from bad to worse. Double-crossed and a long way from home, Max is now trapped in a city full of violence and bloodshed, using his weapons and instincts in a desperate search for the truth and a way out.”

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