Starbreeze Buys Rights To Payday Franchise From 505 Games, Ends Microtransactions

Starbreeze Studios the developers behind the popular Payday series have announced a deal with former publisher 505 games that would see Starbreeze acquire the full rights of the Payday franchise in exchange for $30 Million USD of stock.

The next game in the franchise Payday 3 is currently under development as the terms of this deal will see 505 & Starbreeze split revenue from the console versions of Payday 2: Crimwave Edition until their [505’s] marketing / promotion costs have been recouped and Payday 3 released. Revenue generated from the Steam release of Payday 2 will be in the hands of Starbreeze retroactively as of May 1st.

For fans wondering about the horrendous micro transactions that received absolutely piles upon piles of criticism, they’re being removed from all versions of the game. Introduced last October, Payday 2 would present players with locked “safes” that contained skins & stat bonuses but could only be opened with a $2.50 USD drill item. Despite other games using a similar model for cosmetics – most notably Counter Strike: GO – the addition of stat boosters on skins caused an uproar within the community., especially since the developers previously said they would NEVER EVER INTRODUCE MICROTRANSACTIONS.

Now, those nasty microtransactions are gone and Starbreeze has pledged to add new content to Payday 2 for at least the next 18 months.

Check out the “E3 Teaser” released by Starbreeze for Payday 2 below: