Starbreeze Studios losses drop by 95 percent in Q1 2021

Payday developer Starbreeze Studios continues to show its recovery is going well in its latest financial report. The three-month period ending on March 31, 2021 saw net sales of SEK 27.9 million ($3.4 million), which is an increase of 27 percent year-on-year.

The company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization were SEK 22.6 million ($2.7 million), a figure that’s up by 27 percent year-on-year. Losses before tax almost vanished, falling by 95 percent to SEK 4.2 million ($505,367) from SEK 97.3 million ($11.7 million), a huge improvement.

This is the lowest quarterly loss the company has posted in a number of years, and the second time that quarterly losses have been under $1 million. The last low quarterly loss like this was in Q3 2020 at SEK 8.2 million ($985,187).

These financial results have been driven by the recent success of Payday 2. The game is still shifting copies, though they are priced ridiculously low, and expansions are selling to all players regularly enough to create a decent income stream.

Events behind the scenes have also bolstered the company. A €50 million signing deal with Koch Media for Payday 3 has more than paid for the game’s development, and the appointment of new CEO Tobias Sjögren appears to have helped the company maintain a course to financial freedom.

Sjögren has already stated that Payday 3 is now fully funded, and will be launching in 2023. This means that the series that many thought was doomed to die with the company just a few years ago will now be the saving grace of the developer.

According to Sjögren, a co-invest scheme for Payday 3 will result in regular income from sales even after the game is published. This means that Starbreeze has an incentive to keep working on it and supporting it for years to come. He added that the company is in a strong place to grow from for many years to come.

Starbreeze faced insolvency in 2018, but has managed to claw things back and become a reputable developer once again. The issue was that Payday 2 is a game that people love playing, but it wasn’t generating enough revenue. Now, it seems like that issue will never occur with Payday 3.