Swedish company Starbreeze has had it rough in recent years, following the near-bankruptcy that forced it to sell System Shock 3 publishing rights back to Otherside Entertainment and developer Dhruva Interactive to Rockstar Games.
Starbreeze has since heavily restructured to refocus solely on the PAYDAY franchise and, from the picture painted in the latest quarterly report, the strategy is paying off. Acting CEO Tobias Sjögren explained that PAYDAY is now the largest game community on Steam and Starbreeze as a whole is 'much stronger' than it was a year ago, paving the way to its return as an 'industry leader' with PAYDAY 3.
Our PAYDAY franchise and “games as a service model” really showed their muscles during the year with several successful releases of content for PAYDAY 2. By late December, PAYDAY 2 had become the biggest game community on Steam, with 7.1 million members. We have executed two capital raises during the year and paid off a large proportion of our debts, strengthened our financial position, and thus enabling the continued successful development of PAYDAY 3 in 2021 – all key steps in putting Starbreeze back on the map as an industry leader.
I have implemented changes during the quarter to strengthen our organization within marketing and business development and continued to recruit the best developers to our studios and in so doing create the best possible conditions for the company’s journey ahead. Through the proven strength of the PAYDAY franchise and a highly dedicated development team, we now have a stable platform that supports the continued successful development of PAYDAY 3. We are standing strong and confident in our efforts to close a publishing agreement with a partner that is as passionate about games as a service as Starbreeze is and ready to join us in the successful launch of PAYDAY 3.
Starbreeze is a much stronger company today than it was one year ago. We are hugely confident, thirsting for revenge and thrilled to be able to focus to the max on developing our IP with PAYDAY front and center. With expanded development capacity and continued good demand for everything PAYDAY, we are in prime position for future growth. I am truly looking forward to continuing the work with Starbreeze and the opportunities that lie before us.
PAYDAY 3 is still some time off, anyway, as Starbreeze itself has scheduled it for 2022 or 2023. We'll keep you apprised of any
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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