Swedish publisher Starbreeze have announced their acquisition of the Payday franchise from 505 Games. This purchase has cost Starbreeze around $30m dollars. In the company’s press release, Starbreeze has also announced the development of Payday 3. The press release does not state any details about Payday 3’s release date or anything the game may contain, but we’ll be looking for any news from Starbreeze over the coming months.
As a result of this acquisition, Starbreeze will not only receive the full rights to the Payday franchise for all future developments and commercialisation, they will also receive full net revenue from Payday 2 on Steam retroactively from May 1st. The console versions of Payday will continue to have the revenue split between Starbreeze and 505 Games, just as the two companies did before the acquisition.
“PAYDAY is very close to my heart, and has laid the foundation for Starbreeze success in recent years. We’re very excited to bring our heisters home to the safe house,” said Bo Andersson Klint, Starbreeze CEO in the company’s press release. “To start with, we believe in the continued success of PAYDAY 2 and will support it for at least another 18 months continuing expanding the game.”
As a result of this acquisition, the developers of Payday 2 are removing the controversial microtransactions. Overkill have posted on Payday 2’s Steam page their discontinuation of the black market system. Here’s exactly what the developers had to say about the latest update to Payday 2: ”The PAYDAY franchise is ours again and to celebrate it, we’re giving away a community grenade, the skills tree and we’re making the black market free for everyone going forward. Check out the video above for more details.”
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