author: Michael Kulakowski
Starbreeze Gets Back on its Feet; PayDay's Future Looks Better
Starbreeze, developer of the PayDay series, has confirmed that it got back on its feet being close to bankruptcy at the end of last year. The future of the present and future game from the PayDay franchise is therefore secured, at least for the time being.
At the end of last year, news broke out that the Swedish teat at Starbreeze Studios is in serious financial problems, which brought the studio dangerously close to bankruptcy. They resulted from the complete failure of OVERKILL's The Walking Dead, as well as unnecessary investments in new and risky projects, such as Star VR glasses and publishing. In addition, several employees of the company were suspected of financial embezzlement and the so-called inside trading in shares. The head of the company, Mikael Nermak, has just issued a statement summarizing the studio's current state and plans for the future. He described the past year as full of challenges and problems, but he is pleased that the efforts of his team have finally allowed him to regain the lost trust of investors.
In the meantime, Starbreeze undertook a major restructuring. The company has abandoned the development of planned console ports, laid off a large number of employees and sold some of its IPs, such as System Shock 3. It has also disposed of some of its subcontractors, which were unnecessary burdens. We are talking about the Indian studio Dhruva Interactive, which was bought by Rockstar for over 7 million dollars. These measures enabled the company to transform all its debts, which, under the new agreement with creditors, will have to be repaid within the next five years.
In the near future, Starbreeze will focus exclusively on the further development of the PayDay series, the value and popularity of which is to provide the studio with financial stability. First of all, there will of course be the recently announced two new paid expansions to PayDay 2, as well as further updates for the game. Mikael Nermak pointed out that by the end of the first half of 2020, the company should close negotiations with partners potentially interested in co-financing development of the second and third part of the series, the arrival of which was announced in 2017. According to the latest information, however, the new title will not be published until 2022 or 2023.
In the foreseeable future, Starbreeze will focus exclusively on the PayDay series.
