A sequel entitled Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne was released in 2003 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. The first game of the series, Max Payne, was released in 2001 for Microsoft Windows and in 2002 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Apple Macintosh a different version of the game was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. The series' first and second installments were written by Sam Lake, while Max Payne 3 was primarily written by Rockstar Games' Dan Houser.
The series is named after its protagonist, Max Payne, a New York City police detective turned vigilante after his family was murdered by drug addicts. Max Payne is a neo-noir third-person shooter video game series developed by Remedy Entertainment ( Max Payne and Max Payne 2) and Rockstar Studios ( Max Payne 3).