Starbreeze announces plan to repay its debts

Payday 2 developers Starbreeze have submitted an administrator-approved plan to the Stockholm District Court, which will hopefully allow the studio to repay its debts.

It has been a difficult year for Starbreeze, having filed for reconstruction in December 2018 in order to regain financial stability – this came alongside the resignation of former CEO Bo Andersson Klint. Starbreeze also announced its plans to lay off a quarter of its staff of 240, with the redundancies planned for this month.

Starbreeze hope to repay the debts they had accrued as of December 2018 within five years, with an interest rate of 5%. The plan is intended to allow Starbreeze to repay the company’s creditors, who are separated into two categories: “supplier creditors” who are owed over SEK 1.04m/$107,000, and “minor supplier creditors” who are owed less.

The company said it had debts totalling SEK 395.7m/$40.8m, though according to an external firm’s accounting, it has assets totalling SEK 1.6bn/$164.99m, mostly being comprised of holding the rights to the Payday franchise. Further revenue has come from the sale of the publishing rights to the upcoming Psychonauts 2 and 10 Crowns. Additionally, Starbreeze transfered the rights to System Shock 3 back to OtherSide Entertainment, with the plan for Starbreeze to be compensated for development costs from the game’s future revenue. 

Payday 3 is planned to be released by 2023, and Starbreeze intend to sign a publishing agreement for the title in H1 2020 that will allow a partner company to fund the game’s development.