It is still a bit early to consider Starbreeze fully out of the woods, but the results for 2022 are definitely going in the right direction. In addition to a stable turnover at 11.4 million euros, Starbreeze has again greatly reduced its net losses for the 4th consecutive year, from 9.2 to 5.3 million euros. A performance to be highlighted given that the Swedish company has relied for all these years on the only Payday 2, supplied with additional content on PC, and whose loyal community bears on its shoulders the full responsibility for the survival of Starbreeze. Payday 2 was entitled to 13 additional contents in 2022 and reached a peak of 695,000 monthly active users in the last quarter of 2022, the second best performance in the history of the game. On a total turnover of 11.4 million euros, the Payday franchise represents 10.9 million euros.
Payday 3, one of the big expectations of 2023
If all goes as planned, Starbreeze will finally launch in 2023. Payday 3 in partnership with its publisher Plaion, which finances the project until the launch and beyond. It goes without saying that the reception given to the game will be decisive for the future of Starbreeze. Other good news, since January 2023, Starbreeze pockets 80% of the sales made by Payday 2 and its DLCs on Steam and no longer 75%. This implies that the total turnover of the game has exceeded 50 million dollars, the threshold from which Valve only keeps 20% of the income associated with the game.
On December 8, Starbreeze began to expand again with the opening of a UK studio, which is run by veterans Tancred Dyke-Wells (Smoke and Sacrifice) and Lawrence Bishop (Demon Quest ’85). The objective is to develop a new in-house license, still based on the game-service model that made Payday successful. Starbreeze, which continues to slowly but surely plump up, now has 165 employees, including 26 women.