Starbreeze Recoups 15 Year Loss in Just Six Months

menace-uk-

menace-uk-

Starfield Gazer
Sep 11, 2013
37,533
15,535
3,930
Payday 2 and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, in conjunction with the original Payday: The Heist, have boosted Swedish studio Starbreeze to a stunning reversal in fortunes.

“To put the past six months in perspective, I would like to highlight that Starbreeze historically, from 1998 to June 2013, accumulated a total loss of SEK 94 million (approximately USD$14.4 million),” writes Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint in the company’s half-year earnings report. “Thanks to our new business model, reorganization and a focus on our own brands, we have – in only two quarters – generated a profit before tax of SEK 104 million (approximately USD$16 million).

“I would like to think that is what they call a turnaround.”

Profit after tax amounted to SEK 90.3 million (approximately USD$13.9 million).
Click to expand...

Andersson notes that Starbreeze has also signed a new agreement with Payday 2 publisher 505 Games, replacing the previous agreement which promised five additional packages for the game. The new contract will allow Starbreeze to spend the next 20 months “developing and refining Payday 2 so that it becomes the best co-operative gaming experience available on the market, with many more add-on packages and other exciting events planned.”

He also confirms the well-received Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons has finally begun to generate royalty income for the company.

“We now have a large cash reserve, have created a stable cost structure, a modern business model, we have continued full control of our own brands and have placed ourselves into a position where we have three games that generate royalties every single day,” writes Andersson.

As such Starbreeze will now continue to shift away from a survival strategy and focus on growth instead.

As of February, Payday 2 was the fifth largest official community on Steam, with over 350,000 active members. Payday 2 developer Overkill, also based in Sweden, was acquired by Starbreeze in June 2012.
Click to expand...


Some good news for a change. Have to say this is pretty amazing. 15 year losses recouped and profit on top in just 6 months.
 
sharkboy1200 said:
Why did I think Starbreeze was out of business? Good for them though. Didn't play either game, but I heard tons of great things.
Click to expand...

I played Brothers: A tale of two sons. It was very good, and unique. Not very long though.
 
Riddick 3 plz

That's all I selfishly care about.
 
sharkboy1200 said:
Why did I think Starbreeze was out of business? Good for them though. Didn't play either game, but I heard tons of great things.
Click to expand...

Some of the key talent splintered off from Starbreeze and went on to form Machinegames; the guys who are making the new Wolfenstein. Clearly they didn't take all the magic out, because Payday 2 was completely awesome. I enjoyed Brothers quite a bit too, short but sweet.
 
I've always loved Starbreeze. I always though their games had an adult, graphical style that I liked more than the current "marketed to teens" look that everybody tries to do. Although they had some flaws, I loved the original Darkness game & Syndicate was awesome as well.
 
That's good news. I liked Brothers a lot. It was one of my favorite games of the year. It didn't get the sales it deserved, but at least the word-of-mouth was good. I'm pleased to hear that the company has had this financial turnaround.
 
pravus said:
Some of the key talent splintered off from Starbreeze and went on to form Machinegames; the guys who are making the new Wolfenstein. Clearly they didn't take all the magic out, because Payday 2 was completely awesome. I enjoyed Brothers quite a bit too, short but sweet.
Click to expand...
That's cool. I wonder if they'll make a Payday 3 pretty soon.
 
Nice to see a nice happy turn around story for a developer for once.
 
sharkboy1200 said:
Why did I think Starbreeze was out of business? Good for them though. Didn't play either game, but I heard tons of great things.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely baseless. On paper Starbreeze acquired Overkill which generated tons of money from Payday 2, but if you look closely, almost all of the executives of Starbreeze are comprised of Overkill veterans nowadays, so it's like Overkill took over the remaining, unfocused staffs in Starbreeze.
 
team56th said:
That's not entirely baseless. On paper Starbreeze acquired Overkill which generated tons of money from Payday 2, but if you look closely, almost all of the executives of Starbreeze are comprised of Overkill veterans nowadays, so it's like Overkill took over the remaining, unfocused staffs in Starbreeze.
Click to expand...
Either way, good times are good over there.
 
GamingArena said:
You be surprised even with the budget in millions they make more money of this games when they are on sale $10-30 then at there actual $60 price
Click to expand...

Oh no doubt. I was just saying the games shouldn't be priced at $60 as they aren't "AAA" games with inflated development costs. It also proves you don't need to be either to turn a tidy profit :)
 
BDaddyK said:
Never played it, but heard it was pretty awesome.
Click to expand...
Didn't get nearly enough love when it released, but it was one of those special games that gave me that sense of awe and wonder that only happens once or twice a generation (if that lately).
 
Absolutely awesome. I loved their game Brothers and i would love to see a follow up to it, or something similar. I am happy for them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back