Starbreeze will continue to make paid expansions for Payday 2 at least until 2023. The game is by far the most important source of income for the Swedish game publisher and developer. Payday 3 should be released sometime in 2023.
Last year, Starbreeze released 19 DLCs for Payday 2 and, according to the publisher, they all sold well. At least until 2023, new DLCs will be developed for the game, the company writes in its annual report. Starbreeze mentions that year because then the release of Payday 3 is planned. The company will probably focus on that game once it’s out.
According to the makers, the continuous expansion of the game has made Payday 2 the largest community on Steam at the end of 2020. In the last quarter of last year, there were an average of 135,000 Payday 2 players per day on all platforms. The game is available on PC and consoles.
By continuing to release DLCs for Payday 2, Starbreeze aims to maintain a stream of revenue and keep players active. In 2020, the company’s turnover was 118 million Swedish kronor, which is about 11.7 million euros. Revenue from the sale of Payday games and DLC accounted for about 95 percent of sales.
All of Starbreeze’s revenue came from digital sales and 79 percent came from PC users. The remaining 21 percent came from console gamers. With Payday Crime War, Starbreeze will also enter the mobile market. To that end, it recently signed an agreement with PopReach, which will release and continue developing the game. Starbreeze then gets a share of the revenue.
In March, Starbreeze signed an agreement with Koch Media for the distribution of Payday 3. With this, the company raised about 50 million euros for the further development and marketing of the game. Starbreeze needed such a deal to survive.
Starbreeze ran into serious financial trouble a few years ago when Overkills The Walking Dead flopped. The company then went through a reorganization and sold studios and rights to several games to avoid bankruptcy. Due to all the problems, it was decided to fully focus on the further development of Payday 2.
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