Starbreeze muses new IP buys after going all-in on Payday

During a recent interview with IGN, Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren said the developer may try its hand again at purchasing IPs. It's something the studio is "definitely looking at," he said, and comes as a new studio for the developer is opening in the UK.

Whether this means the developer plans to own IP to make games for or just acquire publishing rights is unclear, but it's still a significant turnaround for Starbreeze. In 2018, the studio developed The Walking Dead: Overkill, which itself nearly ended the entire company.

The poor reception to Overkill resulted in Starbreeze scaling back and selling off anything it could to stay afloat, and it's relied on the Payday series (mainly Payday 2, as Payday 3 is still in development) to drive its revenue.

Before Overkilll, Starbreeze had developed and published games based on established franchises such as Lionsgate's John Wick, Universal's Riddick, and Top Cow's The Darkness.

Returning to IP is one of the functions of Starbreeze's new UK studio, which will be run by Lawrence Bishop and Tancred Dyke-Wells. Sjögren told IGN that the duo will be developing projects based on a pair of newly acquired (but unspecified) IPs.

This past August, during its financial report for 2022's second quarter, Starbreeze said that beyond Payday, it was developing other IP, one of which is expected to release in 2025.