Never in my wildest dreams have I thought the day would break on which I would be able to share this with you, but here we are. Today, PayneReactor has become twenty years old and it has been an incredible ride up to this point to say the least. Over the course of all those years, we have been through six major revisions, we have been through good and bad times and we’ve been spoiled with many videogames that enabled us to provide you with exciting content.
The land of the world wide web has changed significantly during all these years, often challenging us to redefine our purpose. What started as an initiative to keep fans informed about everything Max Payne has turned into a homage to story-driven videogames. However, through all those years there has been only one constant. Your undying support. And for that, we honor you. Your support has been of tremendous value in keeping us relevant and afloat to this day. Every visit, long or short, every comment, reply, link, direct message or click means the world to us. And it will continue to do so. Your support is never taken for granted. Thus, while this was a little scary to do, allow me to personally thank you with the help of the below video.
The best part is that you never cease to amaze. The community is smart, talented and incredibly passionate. There’s an endless stream of content out there created by fans: the most amazing artworks, comprehensive mods, films that easily rival professional productions, touching poetry and breathtaking stories. Let it be clear that this point in our history will not go down as a celebration dedicated to us, but to you. You have given us so much and I feel incredibly guilty I can only give back so little.
Instead of looking back allow us to take a look forward, for the future is exciting. However, If you’d like to know more about our website’s rich history, please be aware that we have written an extensive article about that here.
While many feared the sustainability of story-driven videogames (and mostly, single player experiences) was being endangered by the high profitability of the “games as a service” model, 2018 has proven to be a massive counterargument towards this statement. We’ve seen games such as Spider-Man, God of War and Red Dead Redemption 2 turning the tide, gaining critical acclaim and becoming massive financial successes. 2019 is also shaping up to be a great year for story-driven experiences. Undeniably, story-driven experiences are here to stay and as a result, so are we. For as long as you are willing to listen, we’ll keep writing. And writing we shall! We’re not even halfway through the year and we’ve already seen gems such as Resident Evil 2, Far Cry New Dawn and Metro Exodus. Later this year, we’ll get our hands on Days Gone, The Outer Worlds and more importantly, Control.
We’ve recently asked the community if they would be interested in us live-streaming a playthrough of Control on Twitch when it comes out. Your response was overwhelmingly positive and as a result we’re now investing in ways to make this happen. Perhaps this will be an exciting development that will lead to new and interesting things? Who knows. What we do know is that we have the spirit and motivation to keep doing this for another twenty or so years. Thank you, dear visitor, for everything you’ve done for us. It’s a honor to serve you.
A special thanks goes out to Remedy Entertainment, Rockstar Games, The Sudden Stop, Kristian Brynie Hollund, Jorge Wolters, Kevin van Dongen, Natchai Stappers, Gerard Moneta, Matt Lowden, Paul & Helen Streutjens, Remi Cassan and last but certainly not least, Ben Wilson.
