Starbreeze Working On New IP, Looking To Expand Beyond Payday

Payday developer Starbreeze has outlined its plans to develop a new intellectual property, which the company is aiming to launch in 2025. In the interim Q1 report for 2022, CEO Tobias Sjogren explained that the studio was currently evaluating several opportunities to grow its portfolio of games and diversify its business.

“During the quarter, we launched a project to develop a new game in-house with a view to release in 2025,” Sjogren said in the interim report. “This game might be based on a licensed brand, but we are also working on developing new IPs internally. Our strategy for new games is to use our experience in games as a service, and our ability to build strong communities that create long-term entertainment value for our players and long-term revenue for Starbreeze.”

The core goal for Starbreeze with its development of new IPs is to create a long-term and differentiated revenue model to help strengthen the studio, Sjorgen added. Payday still remains a valuable series for the studio, although its current earnings have seen a decrease of 32% year-over-year in net sales, according to GamesIndustry.Biz.

Payday 2 is carrying the company as it accounted for nearly all revenue earned during Q1, but PC sales during the quarter declined from $2.26 million last year to $2 million this year due to a variety of factors Sjogren added.

As for Payday 3, the game is still expected to release in 2023 and will feature a dynamic version of New York City to explore and rob blind. One interesting twist on the game’s reactive sandbox will be that the in-universe media will cover the Payday heist team of Dallas, Hoxton, Chains, and Wolf’s exploits, which could lead to a few surprises.