It has just been announced that Plaion has given up publishing rights to Payday 3 to Starbreeze, the game’s developer. This full acquisition of the Payday 3 license cost Starbreeze approximately SEK 33 million ($3.4 million) in ‘class B shares’.
It was said in a press release that this will ‘enable Starbreeze to accelerate content development and pursue broader business opportunities for the Payday franchise as a whole.’
Bought, Not Stolen
In a statement, a representative from Starbreeze’s board said:
This agreement enables Starbreeze to fully acquire the publishing rights to PAYDAY 3 from Plaion, significantly accelerate our content development roadmap, and pursue broader strategic opportunities for the PAYDAY franchise as a whole.
We appreciate PLAION’s support, which underscores their confidence in Starbreeze’ future and strengthens our strategic alignment with major global industry players.
It was further mentioned that this ‘marks the conclusion of the current publishing arrangement’ between Plaion and Starbreeze. It’s not the end of their relationship, as the deal will reportedly lay ‘the groundwork for a long-term partnership between Starbreeze and Plaion on future Payday franchise projects.’
This acquisition of publishing rights is centred entirely around Payday 3, which was released in September 2023 to a pretty rocky reception.
It doesn’t necessarily mean much as a whole on the Payday 3 front, but it’ll be interesting to see how Starbreeze evolves this eighteen-month-old game given this newfound sense of independence.
Payday 3 was recently in the news after developers admitted that the game was ‘unfinished’ at launch. That was a key concern amongst fans of the franchise, who were left dismayed by the state of Payday 3 when it dropped in September 2023.
Bizarrely, the news of this publishing acquisition comes mere months after Starbreeze revealed plans to ‘invest significantly less’ in Payday 3’s second year of content.
Have you given Payday 3 a spin yet? Let me know if you enjoyed it on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out what Shuhei Yoshida had to say about the growing prices of games
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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