Starbreeze backs VR dev Freeform with $750,000 investment

Starbreeze, the Swedish studio behind the PayDay series, has invested in US VR/AR developer Freeform Labs.

Under the $750,000 agreement, Starbreeze will earn half of the lifetime royalties for Freeform’s first virtual reality title, ElemenTerra, which was originally created as a student project. It will also own half of the IP going forward.

The move acts to strengthen Starbreeze’s position in the VR market, following its work on the StarVR headset and platform, and StarCade virtual reality arcade.

Max Pittsley, Camille Kanengiser and Ian Donahue, who founded Freeform late last year in Santa Monica, will now operate out of Starbreeze’s LA offices.

"In our continued pursuit to further advance and evolve in our understanding of virtual reality, we’ve cast a wide net, encompassing several areas: our hardware initiative in the StarVR HMD and developing our own VR experiences, as well as in our role as a publisher for other VR-centric content producers,” said Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint (via GI).

"We especially recognize the work done by Freeform Labs and have followed their progress since graduating out of USC Games & Animation. We are very excited to bring the team on board into our publishing initiative and to be able to assist in realizing the great vision they have for ElemenTerra."