Max Payne 2 worth $8 million?

Take-Two Interactive has agreed to pay up to $8 million as incentive payments to Apogee Software and Remedy Entertainment for the development of Max Payne 2, the upcoming sequel to last year's popular third-person action game, Max Payne. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the incentive payments are based on both the timely development of the game and the game's sales.

Max Payne was released in July 2001 for the PC and later that year for the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2. The game, which has shipped more than 2.75 million copies worldwide since its release, lets players assume the role of an undercover cop on a mission to take down a mafia ring. It received numerous awards, including GameSpot's Readers' Choice PC Game of the Year for 2001. A Macintosh version of the game is in beta testing and is scheduled for release next month by MacSoft, a division of Infogrames.

Last month, Take-Two announced that it had purchased the rights to the Max Payne brand from Apogee and Remedy for $10 million and nearly 1 million shares of restricted stock. The company also announced that it would publish Max Payne 2 in 2003, although no details about the game were revealed. We'll post more information about the game as it becomes available.