Getting all my information from here.

According to Michael Pachter, it was.

https://twitter.com/michaelpachter/status/213424864030236672

“Max Payne 3 a flop, according to NPD; can’t believe Rockstar put off releasing GTA to work on that game.”

“Without divulging too much NPD goodness, I can tell you that Max Payne 3 sales were less than 50% of LA Noire’s. 8 years in development!”

Less that 50% of LA Noire is pretty nuts considering Max Payne was a straight up shooter.

Holy shit, if that's true I bet Rockstar weren't expecting that.

I'm sure they'll be fine. GTA 5 should easily make up most of the loses.

Releasing the same day as Diablo was a good idea...

Well, I bought it, not my fault.

I honestly expected it

Yeah hasn't appeared to blow the doors off like they've done traditionally.

As a person who gives not one toss about GTA I'm glad Rockstar chose to release something I would actually enjoy. MP3 and LA Noire have been two of my favourite Rockstar releases since Bully

I just bought it today. Surprised it didn't sell that well as its pretty solid Rockstar shooter fare, which a lot of people still seem to be into. I'm enjoying it anyway.

@Robiin said:

Releasing the same day as Diablo was a good idea...

In, life, we have choices; I agree that this choice of theirs was, in my mind, a poor one.

And I really enjoyed Max Payne 3. Such a bummer...

I hope this game has a tail on it.  This is one of the finest crafted shooters since Crysis.

@Zacagawea said:

I honestly expected it

you should of called and warned them then...

Oh that was quite surprising, I assumed Max Payne was a big enough name to get many people to buy it. I do however wonder why they decided to launch around Diablo III, like seriously what?

I bet costs were significantly less than LA Noir for the dev cycle. 8 years in dev suggests 8 years of active dev. This is rubbish.

Cool, hopefully that means the price will drop sooner rather than later. It's definitely not worth $60.

that's really weird.

maybe the whole world was waiting for the PC version that only launched two weeks ago :) (like I did!)

Sales don't matter, Rockstar shipped 3 millions already, and that's just retail. As far as their financial bottom line is concerned those copies are already sold. 3 millions copies is not a flop. And the cost of making a game on the same tech they've been using since the beginning of this gen is probably much less than L.A. Noire's development cost.

And anyway, NPD is just north america. I know it sounds crazy but there's a whole world out there!

games been out a month, oh well, guess it wont sell anymore copies ever after its first week of release right....right?

Can't say I'm shocked but it is a Rockstar game so I assumed it would do well. I love the Payne series but it wasn't the direction I want the series to go in so I'm waiting for it too be cheaper to pick up.

Well, I bought it, not my fault.

Seems like a poor comparison, as Noire has been out way longer than Max Payne 3. I'd imagine dev costs on Noire are much, much higher than the ones on MP3 also

@AhmadMetallic said:

@2HeadedNinja said:

Well, I bought it, not my fault.

Not your "fault"? There's no fault here, I bought it as well but I'm glad Rockstar bombed, because they fucked me with LA Noire last year, they deserve it.

WoW, what an intelligent and educated opinion you have there. Because you didn't like one of their past games it makes you happy that the company may be having problems with a game you apparently love?

@2HeadedNinja said:

Well, I bought it, not my fault.

Not your "fault"? There's no fault here, I bought it as well but I'm glad Rockstar bombed, because they fucked me with LA Noire last year, they deserve it.

It had no chance against Diablo III. Maybe during summer people will buy the game after they are totally done with Diablo.

@AhmadMetallic: You mean to tell me you didn't love LA Noire? :)

Not shocked, but interesting. Guess the 'By the makers of GTA' doesn't always work magic does it. 

@Hizang said:

Oh that was quite surprising, I assumed Max Payne was a big enough name to get many people to buy it. I do however wonder why they decided to launch around Diablo III, like seriously what?

They picked May 15 before Blizzard announced the date for D3 and by that point is was probably too late to move to another date.

@AhmadMetallic

@2HeadedNinja said:

Well, I bought it, not my fault.

Not your "fault"? There's no fault here, I bought it as well but I'm glad Rockstar bombed, because they fucked me with LA Noire last year, they deserve it.

What kind of stupid ass logic is that.

@Pr1mus said:

Sales don't matter, Rockstar shipped 3 millions already, and that's just retail. As far as their financial bottom line is concerned those copies are already sold. 3 millions copies is not a flop. And the cost of making a game on the same tech they've been using since the beginning of this gen is probably much less than L.A. Noire's development cost.

And anyway, NPD is just north america. I know it sounds crazy but there's a whole world out there!

I don't think retailers are going to be happy when there are a lot of Max Payne 3 copies stuffed in storage. It's human for them to feel every so slightly burned, burned enough to, maybe, not stock as many copies the next time Rockstar tries to sell a game to them.

@AhmadMetallic: I remember a friend trying to convince me that L.A. Noire was like the second coming of games once. He was like "Their faces are super real, man, and you feel like a cop" but I had already seen that the Truth Lie Evidence (I forget what the 3 were now, but I knew then) system was just basically a massive contrivance on a poor noire game.

@Gaff: Nah man, because that next game will be GTA V. You can never have to many GTA V copies. And with anything, you're only as good as your last game. And sales wise Rockstar will be pretty fucking good after GTA V.

Hasn't this game only been out a month?

Kinda soon to call it a flop? We aren't even in the dog days of Summer yet.

@OneManX: Generally speaking, blockbuster hits are expected to sell like mad on day one, and then have a small, steady tail on them. The initial sales have been underwhelming compared to expectations.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@CL60 said:

@AhmadMetallic

@2HeadedNinja said:

Well, I bought it, not my fault.

Not your "fault"? There's no fault here, I bought it as well but I'm glad Rockstar bombed, because they fucked me with LA Noire last year, they deserve it.

What kind of stupid ass logic is that.

There's no logic, I'm upset that they duped me with LA Noire trailers and didn't tell me the gameplay was a complete repetitive embarrassment, wasting 60 dollars of my hard earned money on a piece of shit interactive movie, so I'm happy for their current misfortune. It's called being butthurt.

no. its called overreacting

Sold bad, sold well, I don't give a shit. I loved the game. How much the game sold doesn't determine how much I like it.

@Pr1mus: GTA5's still a long way off. I think the next Take Two game would be... Spec Ops: The Line? Then again, Max Payne 3's failure might spell trouble for reviving "old" franchises and banking on the "familiarity" people may, or in this case may not, have had. So yeah: Hi, X-Com reboot. Even worse, the isometric, turn-based combat strategy game that is hitting shelves October 2012.

@2HeadedNinja said:

Well, I bought it, not my fault.

Not your "fault"? There's no fault here, I bought it as well but I'm glad Rockstar bombed, because they fucked me with LA Noire last year, they deserve it.

I never got the hype anyway. I played 1 and 2. They was ok 10 hour campaigns with nothing particularly outstanding except for the slow mo. 3 was exactly the same except rockstar polish and tacked on multiplayer that hardly anyone will play.

You look at red dead, GTA IV and L.A and you might not like all of them (i couldn't stand L.A for example) but they was all big, bold, unique games. Third person shooters are a dime a dozen and slow mo don't cut it these days.

Here in England, Max Payne 3 received a much greater amount of advertising than Diablo III, and yet D3 appears to have completely wiped the floor with MP3. I cannot comment further as I haven't played MP3, but I can't help but feel like the expectations were too high for this game; why else would they put it up against D3? Rockstar are smart enough to know that time is just as valuable a resource as money, and that much of their fanbase would be sinking hours upon hours into D3 for weeks after MP3's release.

@doobie: Is that not the definition of butt hurt?

Still looking like this might be my GOTY amazing in all aspects. Shame mofe people didn't buy it. Glad it got made I forgot how much I missed max.

Is that counting the of version which launched later than consoles

@AhmadMetallic: LA Noire was amazing, sucks to be you dude. Not everything is a shooter.

@AhmadMetallic: LA Noire was amazing, sucks to be you dude. Not everything is a shooter.

Wow, yeah sure if the great man Pachter says it, then it must be true. Goddamnit.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@2HeadedNinja said:

Well, I bought it, not my fault.

Not your "fault"? There's no fault here, I bought it as well but I'm glad Rockstar bombed, because they fucked me with LA Noire last year, they deserve it.

Noire was not developed by Rockstar.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@Counterclockwork87 said:

@AhmadMetallic: LA Noire was amazing, sucks to be you dude. Not everything is a shooter.

Not everything that isn't a shooter a good game.

Perfectly said.

It's been a long time since a Max Payne game has come out. Maybe people lost interest in the franchise. NPD numbers don't include sales from Wal-Mart or digital distribution. The game has only been out for less than a month. It a little to easy to dismiss the game because of the high expectations of a Rockstar game. The long development cycle and heavy marketing push. That being said, I already in the middle of other games. Max Payne 3 is not on the top of my list of games to play.

@AhmadMetallic:  How did they fuck you with LA Noire? That game was a breath of fresh air in a stale market.

Wait... was Max Payne 3 in development for 8 years, or does he mean that it's been 8 years since the last game? I seriously can't believe that they'd spend longer to make that game than Remedy took to make Alan Wake, which was already kind of a joke in terms of development time (though probably just because of the early expectations they set with their first E3 reveal).