Swedish game studio Starbreeze enjoyed success in the early 2000s with the two "Chronicles of Riddick" series and the "Syndicate" reboot. More recently, however, the company is probably best known for the co-op crime shooter "Payday 2."

The sequel, "Payday 3," was announced in February 2017, but the studio warned at the time that a release was not imminent. A Starbreeze representative said at the time, "This is the single most important brand for us today and the cornerstone of our business, so we will treat it accordingly. There may be very few updates in the near future." We simply cannot rush 'Payday 3'". [The situation was further complicated the following year when Overkill's "The Walking Dead" was released to poor reviews and was such a big flop that the studio was forced to find ways to cut costs. Soon after, the company filed for restructuring to avoid bankruptcy, the CEO resigned, and the offices were raided by Swedish authorities investigating allegations of insider trading. (Incidentally, the allegations were eventually substantiated.)

Overkill's "The Walking Dead" was removed from Steam in 2019 due to contractual issues with Skybound Entertainment, and things went from bad to worse. Starbreeze was forced to sell the publishing rights to various games, sold the entire studio to Rockstar, and eventually laid off 25% of its employees. At one point, there was a possibility of closing the studio.

Despite the seeming death spiral, things seemed to turn around somewhat in 2020, when an aggressive return to Payday 2 development paid off, and then-CEO Mikael Nermark said of Payday 2's resurgence, "The future release of Payday 3 A year later, the restructuring appears to be nearly complete.

"Our 'Payday' franchise and our 'game as a service' model have demonstrated their full strength over the past year with the successful release of several releases of content for 'Payday 2,'" Tobias Sjögren, acting CEO, said in the company's latest By late December (2020), "Payday 2" had become Steam's largest gaming community, with 7.1 million members. During the past year, we have raised capital twice, paid down the majority of our debt, and strengthened our financial position, allowing us to continue the successful development of 'Payday 3' in 2021." These are all important steps to put Starbreeze back on the map as an industry leader.

Starbreeze aims to continue to expand Payday 2 "not only in terms of game sales, but also in the daily activities of gamers" and to keep moving toward Payday 3. The search for a publisher is still ongoing, but according to Sjögren, the company now has "a stable platform that will allow for the continued successful development of Payday 3."

"We are strongly and confidently committed to entering into publishing agreements with partners who are as passionate about the service of gaming as Starbreeze and who will work with us to make the launch of Payday 3 a success. Starbreeze is a much stronger company than it was a year ago." We have great confidence, thirst for revenge, and are excited to be able to focus on developing our IP to the fullest extent, with 'Payday' at the forefront."

Little is known about "Payday 3" at this time other than the fact that it exists, but Starbreeze has stated that it will use the Unreal Engine in October 2020 and has also strongly hinted that the game will continue to be about the criminal adventures of shady men in outrageous masks. No release date was announced, but we will update if and when one is announced.