Payday publisher Starbreeze did not have a good 2019, following its filing for reorganization to avoid bankruptcy the previous December. It sold its studio, laid off 25% of its employees, and put most of its eggs in the Payday basket. Now the year-end earnings report has been released, and while much of it is bleak, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the publisher.

Starbreeze spent the year restructuring and reorganizing the company to remain solvent, so it did not release any new games during that time. The loss before taxes for the full year was 452.4 million kroner (£32.2 million/$46.9 million), which is considerably less than the loss of over 1 billion kroner reported in the previous year.

Payday was a beacon of hope for the struggling company, announcing in October that Payday 2 had returned to active development and that it hoped to release Payday 3 in the next few years.

CEO Mikael Nermark said that the new DLC for Payday 2 has generated better-than-expected sales and interest, with the highest number of simultaneous players "in a while."

According to Steam Charts, the average player count before Payday 2 returned to active development was around 10,000, but jumped to 28,000 in November.

Payday 2 updates will continue this year.

"This is a good sign supporting interest in a future Payday 3 release and lays a stable foundation for continued efforts. "Starbreeze plans to release additional updates for Payday 2 in 2020. as of January 3, Sales will gain further momentum as Starbreeze's share of sales via Steam increases from 70% to 75%."

For the sequel, Starbreeze is currently looking for a publishing partner that can "provide financial stability and possess the marketing and distribution resources necessary to best launch the product and boost further development." Starbreeze aims to present a publishing agreement to investors by the end of the first half of 2020.