Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Starbreeze | Tagged: Payday, Payday Crime War, PopReach, Starbreeze

Starbreeze & PopReach Make New Deal For Payday Crime War

Published Wed, 14 Apr 2021 07:40:51 -0500

Last updated Wed, 14 Apr 2021 07:45:12 -0500

Some good news for Payday fans as Payday Crime War is coming back after Starbreeze and PopReach reached a new licensing deal. According to the deal announced this morning, Starbreeze will receive a non-recoupable upfront payment of $250k, as PopReach will receive the complete source code to the game and access to Payday 2 content. PopReach will also "cover all costs for continued development, marketing, live operations, and user acquisition with respect to the game." Starbreeze is definitely getting the better end of the deal on this one as they get their game back on the market, they receive royalties, and they barely have to do any work beyond promoting its release. We don't know when the game will come out, but we're guessing we'll see it before the end of 2021. Here's a couple of quotes from today's announcement.

Good news, boys! We're going back to mobile! Courtesy of Starbreeze.

"It's an exciting time for all of us at Starbreeze, during the last month we've changed the trajectory for the company by securing deals around the Payday IP. We look forward to working with PopReach to ensure that Payday Crime War brings the same action-packed gameplay our players and community already know and love to mobile devices. PopReach has a proven track record and has successfully developed and launched free-to-play mobile titles based on well-known IP:s, and our collaboration will be an important component of our strategy to further expand the Payday franchise", said Tobias Sjögren, CEO of Starbreeze.

"Payday is an incredibly popular co-op first person shooter franchise that has showed tremendous staying power and enduring appeal. Payday 2 still consistently ranks among the top played PC games on Steam with over 130,000 daily active users. Obtaining the license rights and source code to Payday Crime War is a massive opportunity that fits well within our strategy of acquiring proven game franchises with established product market fit, with a large built-in audience and deep universe to draw from, including an extensive pipeline of more than 70 Payday 2 content updates years in the making. We believe that Payday Crime War has the potential to generate substantial revenue for PopReach, given the longstanding success of the franchise, and the fact that it will be the first mobile free-to-play Payday game", said Jon Walsh, CEO of PopReach.