Starbreeze, the Swedish publisher and developer of Payday 2, has signed an agreement with Koch Media for the distribution of Payday 3. The game is expected to be released in 2023.
Starbreeze says the deal represents an investment of more than $50 million towards both the development and marketing costs of Payday 3. The money will also be used for new content that will be released more than 18 months after release.
With this agreement, Payday 3 is fully funded, with Starbreeze now saying it expects the game to be released in 2023 for consoles and PC. The Swedish company said in October 2019 that Payday 3 was planned to be released in 2022 or 2023.
Last month, it emerged that Starbreeze was still looking for deals to release the Payday 3. A quarterly earnings report showed that a year-end liquidity shortfall would develop if additional financing or a distribution deal for Payday 3 were not forthcoming. come. The divestment of business units was also mentioned as an option.
Last year, Starbreeze suffered a loss of 130.5 million Swedish kronor, equivalent to almost 13 million euros. That was lower than previous losses. Starbreeze ran into serious financial trouble a few years ago when Overkill’s The Walking Dead flopped. Overkill Software is part of Starbreeze. The failure of that game forced Starbreeze to reorganize and sell studios and rights to various games in order to survive. The developer also picked up the development of his successful game Payday 2 again. The latter in particular has borne fruit, which means that the company is now in a better position.
At the end of last year, Starbreeze said that Payday 3 is in the design phase and that the game will be made with Unreal Engine. Previous Payday games used Overkill Software’s Diesel engine. Little is known about the new, upcoming game. Payday 2 is a bit like the Left 4 Dead games. It revolves around committing robberies at banks, casinos and museums, among other things.