Starbreeze acquires full franchise rights to Payday

The developer behind the popular Payday games has fully acquired all rights to the IP.

The rights previously belonged to the game’s publisher, 505 Games, but now Starbreeze will hold the rights to “any future developments or commercialisation, including Payday 2 and Payday for mobile platforms”.

The acquisition cost 10.9m B-shares in Starbreeze, which equates to $30m.

505 Games will retain a 33 per cent revenue share of net revenues for sales of the upcoming – and technically unannounced – Payday 3, although this will be capped at $40m and won’t start until Starbreeze has recouped its marketing and development costs.

Starbreeze will retain full new revenues from Payday 2 on Steam starting from May 1st, 2016, while the console revenues will be split as before.

"Payday is very close to my heart, and has laid the foundation for Starbreeze success in recent years. We’re very excited to bring our heisters home to the safe house," said Bo Andersson Klint, Starbreeze CEO. 

"To start with, we believe in the continued success of Payday 2 and will support it for at least another 18 months continuing expanding the game."