Starbreeze acquires PAYDAY rights – Removes microtransactions

Starbreeze has announced the acquisition of the PAYDAY franchise from 505 Games.

After the transaction Starbreeze will own the full rights to the PAYDAY-franchise for any future developments or commercialization, including PAYDAY 2 and PAYDAY for mobile platforms. Starbreeze will retain full net revenue from PAYDAY 2 on the Steam platform starting retroactively from May 1st, 2016. Revenue generated by the console game PAYDAY 2: Crimewave Edition will continue to be split between the companies as before, and 505 Games will continue to publish the title.

Furthermore, 505 Games will retain a 33% revenue share of Starbreeze’s net revenues from future sales of PAYDAY 3 capped at 40 MUSD, and after Starbreeze has fully recouped its development and marketing costs.

Thew news comes as the game’s 100th update arrives and the acquisition also brings some good news for players who left the game due to the “drill”fiasco. The game’s Black Market will now be free for all players and the video below explains exactly how this will work when the game’s next update releases. Old generation safes will be phased out and new generation safes will be unlockable for free.

In case you skimmed over the first part of the quote, PAYDAY 3 is also coming. An AMA will take place this Friday on Twitch as detailed in the Steam update.