'Max Payne 4' release date update: No confirmation from developers yet, but fans hoping for E3 announcement

Fans of the "Max Payne" video game franchise are hoping that the earlier reported development of "Max Payne 4" would finally push through even as the game's developer, Rockstar Games, has not confirmed anything yet.

Nevertheless, The Bitbag has observed that based on the time gap between release dates of previous "Max Payne" titles, it might take several years more before the next installment sees daylight.

According to The Bitbag's report, while "Max Payne 2" was released in 2003, or a mere two years after the original was launched, it wasn't until 2012 when Rockstar Games released "Max Payne 3." If that timeline is to be followed, and if "Max Payne 4" is being developed indeed, then fans could expect it to be out in 5-6 years.

Rockstar Games is certainly keeping mum as far as the meaty details of the game go, but they do drop hints to the public every now and then. Moreover, when Take-Two Interactive shared its latest earning reports, it revealed that Rockstar Games is hard at work on various projects.

"Rockstar Games is of course hard at work on some exciting future projects that will be revealed soon," their report stated.

Since no one has inside information on "Max Payne 4's" development, fans could only guess what the gameplay could possibly involve. Some are hoping that it would still feature Bullet Time, a feature that slows down everything around the character.

It must be noted that the first two games in the series were under Remedy Entertainment, but Rockstar Games took over the cudgels beginning with "Max Payne 3."

Last February, DualShockers got to talk to Sam Lake when they attended a lecture at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris. In the interview, Lake bared that Rockstar developers asked Remedy folks to test out "Max Payne 3" during production so they could provide feedback.

He admitted that the test period allayed his fears that Rockstar would merely copy Remedy's rendition of the game since the third installment proved to have Rockstar's stamp all over it and was clearly a re-imagining of the franchise.

"They should do their own thing, and we should do our own thing, and if we tried to mimic each other, to me that feels like a wrong approach," he said.

Lake also said that while Remedy Entertainment would have tried a different approach, Rockstar did what he expected.

Those eagerly awaiting the "Max Payne 4" release date are hoping the studio would announce details about it at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which is happening on June 14-16, 2016.