Starbreeze AB, developer of the Payday series, has announced its agreement to purchase the full rights to the franchise from publisher 505 Games for approximately $30 million USD.
This is what happens once the transaction is complete:
Starbreeze will own the full rights to the
PAYDAY-franchise for any future developments or commercialization, including
PAYDAY 2 and
PAYDAY for mobile platforms. Starbreeze will retain full net revenue from
PAYDAY 2 on the Steam platform starting retroactively from May 1st, 2016. Revenue generated by the console game
Payday 2: Crimewave Edition will continue to be split between the companies as before, and 505 Games will continue to publish the title.
The agreement also mentions the upcoming Payday 3. Whether or not Payday 3 is currently in development or is simply planned at the moment is not specified, nor are any further details or release date expectations disclosed.
Furthermore, 505 Games will retain a 33% revenue share of Starbreeze's net revenues from future sales of PAYDAY 3 capped at 40 MUSD, and after Starbreeze has fully recouped its development and marketing costs.
Starbreeze estimates that they will have made back their $30 million investment by the time that Payday 3 launches at an undisclosed time in the future. This is not hard to believe considering that the series currently boasts over 14 million downloads according to Starbreeze, and recently celebrated its 100th update to the Steam version.
Bo Andersson Klint, CEO of Starbreeze Studios, is thrilled with the acquisition. "PAYDAY is very close to my heart, and has laid the foundation for Starbreeze success in recent years," he said. "We're very excited to bring our heisters home to the safe house."
He also promised that Payday 2 would be supported for at least another 18 months, stating that Starbreeze "believes in the continued success" of the 2011 title, which was later released on consoles in 2015.
As for what this means for the series, Starbreeze/OVERKILL Software have already overturned their controversial microtransaction system for Payday 2 Steam players. After a rocky launch and questionable support for the Playstation version, perhaps making a better impression on the console community is next?