Within the final decade, Sweden’s Starbreeze has very a lot turn out to be the Payday firm. Payday 2, which launched in 2013 and has bought over 40 million models, helped the agency by means of its darkest days. The corporate guess the home on 2023’s Payday 3, with middling outcomes: the title debuted to blended critiques and gross sales and participant counts that have been “considerably decrease than we want”, prompting the creation of a “strike team” to show the game’s fortunes round.
Three years later, efficiency has stabilised and Payday stays the corporate’s main supply of earnings (simply final yr, the agency cancelled its in-development Dungeons & Dragons games-as-a-service title, Undertaking Baxter.) The franchise has over 50 million gamers and has generated $400 million in lifetime income. During Starbreeze’s 2025 financial year, Payday 3 generated SEK 76.5 million ($8.19 million) in gross sales whereas Payday 2 managed SEK 50.1 million ($5.37 million).
The corporate stays totally targeted on the co-op crime franchise; the agency’s chief progress officer, Matt Dixon, tells GamesIndustry.biz that it’s a “privilege to have such a liked IP”. “What we need to do is deliver out extra video games within the Payday world,” he says. The primary such is a shocking one: a VR launch, produced in partnership with digital actuality specialist Quick Journey Video games, which has labored on titles equivalent to Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice and Apex Assemble. Payday Aces Excessive is launching this yr for Meta Quest and SteamVR.
Each corporations are based mostly in Stockholm, and the game happened after a “informal dialog over lunch” about Starbreeze’s plans to “broaden the Payday IP and open it as much as exterior companions,” Dixon remembers.
“There was mutual respect from the beginning, and instantly we knew a collab could be wonderful. Shortly after, concepts have been flowing and a pitch acquired cooking. Quick Journey pitched their thought to us, and the remainder is historical past.”
Quick Journey Video games chief artistic officer and co-founder Erik Odeldahl provides: “We determined very early that this might be a game starring a new group of heisters, with their very own story to inform.
“All of it takes place in the identical world because the mainline video games, and there are tons of issues within the game that Payday followers will recognise, however each Quick Journey Video games and Starbreeze felt that for a artistic manufacturing to work greatest, you want room to manoeuvre.”
Adapting a longtime ‘flat display screen’ video game franchise to VR comes with its challenges. (“Up to now, I haven’t been a part of a game manufacturing that hasn’t had challenges,” quips Odeldahl). Mechanics that work in a common game typically don’t translate nicely to the extra immersive expertise that’s digital actuality.
“We’ve reworked the Quiet Mode stealth section to higher go well with immersive VR play,” Odeldahl explains. “Early on, we additionally prioritised creating a robust development system, as a result of we all know that enabling participant experimentation with their loadouts for every distinctive heist might be essential for driving replayability. Development in Aces Excessive means utilizing your ill-gotten positive aspects and in-game {dollars} to unlock new talents, devices and weapons. As a consequence, we designed VR-specific interactions for each merchandise that really feel intuitive and pure.”
This is not the primary time Starbreeze has dabbled in digital actuality. There was a VR model of Payday 2 and the agency labored on 2017’s John Wick Chronicles. At one level, the corporate was even creating its personal VR headset in affiliation with Acer, referred to as Undertaking StarVR.
“What we discovered from our previous experiences is that the game must really feel genuinely completely different to its flat display screen model and must be totally constructed for immersion,” Dixon explains. “It is not simply in regards to the tech. It is about how the game feels, the way it’s designed for a 3D house, and the way the loop suits the playstyle of that machine.”
Whereas digital actuality is not a small market, it additionally is just not the largest. Aces Excessive can also be a social expertise that requires a number of gamers, which may restrict the title’s business potential. However Odeldahl says that the social factor is definitely a good factor.
“Whereas VR continues to be a extra targeted phase of the general video games market, we’ve constantly seen that social and cooperative experiences are among the many strongest drivers of participant engagement and retention,” he explains. “To that finish, we’ve put a lot of time and vitality into ensuring that it’s straightforward to seek out folks to play with. Aces Excessive helps full cross-platform play between Steam and Meta Quest gamers, and we’ve added some ways to seek out and join with different on-line gamers. And on the identical time, we’ve designed the game to be totally playable solo, in order that the core heist expertise is accessible for any participant. As with any good co-op game although, the perfect and most enjoyable experiences are while you play with others.”
Quick Journey’s Odeldahl additionally says that he’s not all-too involved in regards to the modifications concerning Meta’s metaverse priorities and the impression that that would have on the digital actuality house.
“Let’s simply say that we watch the altering traits at Meta with nice curiosity,” he says. “The VR business has all the time developed amidst shifts in platform funding and technique, and that’s one thing we issue into how we plan long-term. Nevertheless, we’ve constantly seen that robust, well-designed video games proceed to seek out audiences no matter these modifications. For the previous ten years, our focus has been on constructing VR video games that excite gamers and are straightforward to entry throughout platforms. In the end, sustainable progress in VR will come from nice content material and participant belief, in order that’s the place we’re investing our vitality.”
Aces Excessive is the primary of a sequence of brand name expansions from Starbreeze, with Dixon describing Payday because the agency’s “focus and our progress engine”.
“Starbreeze is totally targeted on delivering extra content material to our Payday merchandise and increasing the IP throughout extra experiences and platforms,” he says. “It is a big duty to have an IP of this magnitude. There are hundreds of thousands of followers all over the world prepared to interact with Payday when it turns up in the correct locations. Payday content material is continuous to develop, and we’re excited to point out followers what’s coming this yr.”