Swedish developer Starbreeze has revealed that it anticipates releasing Payday 3 in either 2022 or 2023.
The news arrived in a blogpost setting out Starbreeze’s expected cash flow, as the beleaguered company appears to be winning its fight to stave off bankruptcy. The post said: “The company estimates that these cash flows will be positive, based on expected new publishing agreements in 2020 and an expected release of Payday 3 in 2022–2023.”
According to the blogpost, Starbreeze expects to conclude a publishing agreement for Payday 3 some time in the first half of 2020, bringing: “An initial payment installment… after which the continued development of the product is financed by the publishing partner.” That projection is asterisked with: “In conjunction with the signing of these publishing agreements, the possibility of payment to the creditors is created in the ongoing reconstruction work. The payment to the creditors is estimated to be able to amount to approximately SEK 40 million [£3.2 million].”
Following poor sales of Overkill’s The Walking Dead (Starbreeze bought Overkill Studios in 2012), Starbreeze was forced to apply for “reconstruction” in December 2018, a Swedish legal device designed to allow companies to avoid bankruptcy, and it since applied for several extensions to that reconstruction period. The developer, famed for games like The Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness, executed a program of major redundancies and sold the rights for System Shock 3 back to OtherSide Entertainment.
But now, it appears to be emerging from its financial gloom in order to concentrate on developing Payday 3. If Payday 3’s release does slip until 2023, however, it will see the game coming out a full ten years after 2013’s Payday 2. For further information, keep an eye on Starbreeze’s website.
