Starbreeze has secured full control over the Payday game franchise with a new agreement with the first-person shooter's previous owners 505 Games. Payday's developers Overkill will continue to support Payday 2 for the next 18 months.
Starbreeze says says the deal is worth about $30 million:
After the transaction Starbreeze will own the full rights to the PAYDAY-franchise for any future developments or commercialization, including PAYDAY 2 and PAYDAY for mobile platforms. Starbreeze will retain full net revenue from PAYDAY 2 on the Steam platform starting retroactively from May 1st, 2016. Revenue generated by the console game PAYDAY 2: Crimewave Edition will continue to be split between the companies as before, and 505 Games will continue to publish the title.
The deal also involves 505 Games getting 33% of any revenue generated by Payday 3, which has yet to be officially announced. The revenue will be capped at $40 million after Starbreeze gets back its game development and marketing costs.
Starbreeze also announced that Payday 2 on the PC will continue to be updated with new content until the end of 2017, with the next update due on Thursday, June 2. Finally, it released a brief live-action trailer that teases a Payday 2 reveal for E3 2016. We will let the video speak for itself.
