Payday 3 is almost safe, agreement with a nearby publisher: is it Microsoft?
Payday 3 is almost safe, agreement with a nearby publisher
Payday 3 development proved more complex than expected for Starbreeze. In 2017, when production officially began, there was a lot of optimism in the corridors of the Swedish studio, which had even stopped supporting Payday 2 to fully focus on the third installment.The optimism and the good intentions were shattered the following year against the qualitative and commercial disaster of Overkill's The Walking Dead. In an effort to settle the debts, the Uppsala company has restarted Payday 2 support by launching several paid content. The maneuver has borne fruit: we have not yet seen anything of Payday 3, but in the latest financial report Starbreeze has made it known that it has managed to repay most of its debts thanks to the excellent revenues of the second chapter and two separate fundraisers, and to have enough liquidity to continue the development of the game throughout 2021.
Officially, Payday 3 is still without a publisher, but it seems that something is moving in that direction too. In the same financial report, CEO Tobias Sjögren said the company is "close to closing a publishing deal with a partner with the same passion for games-as-a-service as Starbreeze, ready to join the launch of Payday 3 success. Starbreeze is a stronger company today than it was a year ago. We are extremely confident, thirsty for revenge and excited to be able to fully focus on our IPs with Payday at the forefront. "
Payday 3 therefore seems to be close to salvation, but a question naturally arises: which publisher is the deal about to take place? The elements available to us are small, but someone on the net has already mentioned Microsoft's name. It has now become a trend: since it started the gargantuan acquisition campaign that brought realities such as Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, Double Fine Productions, Playground Games and, shortly, Zenimax / Bethesda, the colossus into the Xbox Game Studios family. of Redmond has been associated with the most disparate acquisition maneuvers: recently he was also approached with Techland, authors of Dying Light 2, but the Polish studio was quick to deny.
Well, at the moment there are three distinct sources to indicate Microsoft as the next Payday 3 publisher: two insiders, one deemed reliable (Alvaro), the other not so (CheesyMcSqueezy); and the authors of the XboxEra podcast. Sources far from certain and official, therefore we advise you to take these rumors with a grain of salt.
Starbreeze says its money troubles are over, Payday 3 development remains on track
Swedish game studio Starbreeze had a good run in the early 2000s with two very solid Chronicles of Riddick games and a criminally underrated Syndicate reboot. These days, though, it's probably best known for the co-op crime shooter Payday 2, which remains firmly entrenched in the upper half of the Steam Top 100 concurrents list despite being eight years old.
A sequel, Payday 3, was announced in February 2017, although the studio warned at the time that a launch was not imminent. 'This is our single most important brand today and the cornerstone of our business and we will treat it accordingly,' a Starbreeze rep said at the time. 'Updates in the near future might be scarce and far between. You simply don't rush Payday 3.'
The situation grew more complicated the following year, when Overkill's The Walking Dead launched to poor reviews and tanked hard enough to force the studio to look for ways to cut costs. Shortly after that, it filed for reconstruction in order to avoid bankruptcy, its CEO resigned, and its offices were raided by Swedish authorities investigating allegations of insider trading. (Allegations which were eventually proven, by the way.)
Overkill's The Walking Dead was removed from Steam in 2019 over a contract dispute with Skybound Entertainment, after which things went from bad to worse: Starbreeze was forced to sell off publishing rights to various games, sold an entire studio to Rockstar, and eventually laid off 25 percent of its workers. At one point, it looked like the studio was likely to close.
Despite appearing to be trapped in a death spiral, things appeared to turn around somewhat in 2020. A return to active Payday 2 development paid off—then-CEO Mikael Nermark said the resurgence of Payday 2 'confirms the interest in a future release of Payday 3 and lays a stable foundation for continued efforts'—and the studio began looking for a publishing partner for the sequel. One year later, it looks like the turnaround is almost complete.
'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,' acting CEO Tobias Sjögren said in the company's latest quarterly financial report. 'By late December [2020], 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.'
Starbreeze aims to continue expanding Payday 2, 'not only in terms of games sold but also in daily activity among our gamers,' while it continues to move toward Payday 3. A search for a publisher is still underway, but according to Sjögren, the company now has '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,' said Sjögren. '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.'
Very little is known about Payday 3 at this point, beyond the fact of its existence, but Starbreeze said in October 2020 that it will use the Unreal Engine, and also hinted very strongly that it will continue to follow the criminal adventures of shady dudes in ridiculous masks. A possible launch target wasn't announced, but I've reached out to ask if they've got one in mind and will update if they do.
