Digital Bros, parent company of various publishers including PC-focused 505 Games, has announced its financial results for the second half of 2020. According to the report, Kojima Productions' "Death Stranding" earned just over 23 million euros (about 2.7 billion yen) for the PC version in the five months ending December 31.

When 505 signed the deal to sell the game on the PC, the publisher was hoping for "more than 50 million euros in lifetime revenue for personal computer versions of video games. Considering that no serious discounting has yet taken place, Sam Porter Bridges may be doing well.

The financial statements also show that "Ghostrunner" is doing well, accumulating just under €7 million in revenue, and that Remedy's "Control" (which has been on sale since late 2019 and generated another €17 million in revenue during this period, for a lifetime total of about €84 million ), indicating that the company continues to perform well. The publisher's slate also includes even longer-tail titles such as "Terraria" (€4.38 million) and "Payday 2" (€2.3 million), which earned significantly during this period.

But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the financials, however, is an aside regarding the studio Starbreeze: Digital Bros sold the rights to "Payday 2" to Starbreeze in May 2016 for $30 million in cash and up to It is noted that $40 million in future revenue was paid; there is no further news on the future of Payday, but there is more to follow on "The Walking Dead," a game developed by the same studio.

Essentially, the game was developed on a $10 million budget, but was such a flop that the console version and contract were quickly terminated, forcing Starbreeze to file for corporate reorganization with the Swedish District Court. Digital Brothers then injected funds and acquired a stake in the development company.

"The agreement provided for a development budget of US$10 million; as of September 30, 2020, subsidiary 505 Games S.p.A. paid US$4.8 million for the development of the said video game; in November 2018, Starbreeze launched a PC version of the said video game. However, related sales were lower than expected; on February 27, 2019, Skybound terminated its licensing agreement for The Walking Dead, and as a result, on April 8, 2019, its subsidiary 505 Games S.p.A. terminated its agreement with Starbreeze for the development and publishing of the console version. The company has been terminated."

An overview of this story was already known, although not in some numbers. During this time, Starbreeze's CEO resigned and its offices were raided by Swedish authorities who were investigating insider trading allegations (the allegations were eventually substantiated).

In short, it was all a bit of a disaster. See Digital Brothers' full financial results here.