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Scott Miller On Making Max Payne A Success
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to 3D Realms founder Scott Miller's weblog entry discussing the reasons why Max Payne "was purposely positioned for success right from the start" . Although Miller, the man overseeing the ever-delayed Duke Nukem Forever, has now sold his share of Max Payne's IP to Take Two/Rockstar, he discusses specifics, including the choice of name ("A perfect name will convey something about the product... have good word-play possibilities for press and news headlines... and have a good short-hand version"), the hook ("The attribute Max owns is 'bullet-time,' like Volvo owns the word 'safety' and McDonalds owns 'fast'") and controversy ("Max Payne had a little, though it didn't get as much press as we thought it might.") He also reveals 3D Realms is "currently working with another developer, with a very similar relationship that we had with Remedy, to create another hit series (or so we hope!)" - an announcement is due in 2004.
They own the trademark for the expression Bullet Time. Thats why in Enter the Matrix(May all who worked on it burn in hell) called slow-mo sequences Focus, because they couldn't buy the rights from Remedy to use thw expression Bullet time.
Read Errant Story.
They own the trademark for the expression Bullet Time
I was about to call bullshit, but I looked it up for myself and you're right.
However, the name "bullet time" for slow motion has been associated with The Matrix since the year of it's release - 1999. If you watch the "Making Of" (which is on the DVD, and, I believe, first aired on HBO in 1999), that is exacly what the slow motion effect is called.
It is interesting to note that Apogee filed a trademark on the term (twice) in May 2001. And then Warner Brothers did the same (multiple times) in August 2003.
Based on date of usage, the term should belong to Warner - especially since they originally wanted to do "Enter The Matrix" way back in 1999 (they approached Dave Perry of Shiny Entertainment but he originally turned them down).
I'm not quite sure what grudge you have against Shiny. Even though ETM wasn't the best game ever - what do you expect for a 100% mainstream title that has to tie in with three movies?
Apogee are the leeches here (may all the lawyers who work there burn in hell). I find it hard to believe that they would have slow-mo sequences in Max Payne 1 if it weren't for The Matrix. Fortunately the effect has now been overused to death - hence MP2 being ridiculed for feeling like nothing more than an expensive expansion pack to the original MP1.