The publisher behind the Steam hit PayDay 2 and the flop Overkill’s The Walking Dead, Starbreeze, is sounding the alarm in its financial report for Q1 2019. If no additional funding is found, the company could go bankrupt in the next 12 months.
What Starbreeze says: The Swedish publisher once hit big with PayDay 2 on Steam, but 2018 was a bad year. And 2019 is starting off disastrously.
Although PayDay 2 sold better, it ends Q1 2019 with a loss of nearly €10 million.
The CEO of Starbreeze, Mikael Nermark, says:
“Starbreeze and some of its subsidiaries have been in reconstruction since December 3, 2018. The company currently lacks the necessary funds to ensure that we can operate for the next 12 months. We expect to have a liquidity shortfall in mid-2019 if no further revenue sources open up. These conditions indicate that there are significant uncertainties that raise substantial doubts about the company’s ability to continue its operations.”
Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark
What is going on? In January 2019, there was an insider report about Starbreeze from Eurogamer that cast a terrible light on the company.
StarBreeze had landed a million-hit with PayDay 2 in 2013, but had evidently overextended and gotten lost.
The development of the new zombie game “Overkill’s The Walking Dead,” which was actually planned as a hit, went disastrously, according to the insider report. It started with an unsuitable engine. Most recently, ports to PS4 and Xbox One were postponed and ultimately canceled.
The zombie company even revoked the game’s license. Since then, it can no longer be sold on Steam.
In connection with the game, there was an affront involving the then-CEO, who had accused an employee in an email of being responsible for the flop. The email then made it to the public.
This led to the insider report appearing in Eurogamer, which painted a grim picture of the company and management as employees shared their view of the history with the press.
Evidently, the once Scandinavian hit company is currently near the brink.
