Starbreeze Studios have purchased the rights to the Payday franchise from 505 games. The Swedish game developer and publisher have reportedly paid $30 million in stock to acquire the series rights.
The transaction gives Starbreeze full rights to future development of the series and full net revenue of the sales of Payday 2 on steam. Starbreeze will continue to split revenue from the console version of Payday 2 with 505 games as well as a third of revenue from Starbreeze future project Payday 3. Starbreeze has also said they will “support (Payday 2) for at least another 18 months continuing expanding the game”.
In other news, Payday 2 developer Overkill has announced that they will be giving away community grenades to players, as well as the skill trees, and making the black market free for everyone, getting rid of microtransactions from Payday 2. All this will be introduced in the game’s next update.