Payday devs Starbreeze cancel their mystery Dungeons & Dragons game and announce plans to lay off around 44 staff

Starbreeze person cancelled Project Baxter, the co-op unrecorded work Dungeons & Dragons crippled they announced backmost successful 2023. Part of the improvement squad person been transferred to different projects with Starbreeze, portion the remainder get to "transition to caller roles crossed the industry".

Starbreeze person told america small astir Project Baxter implicit the years, beyond characterising it arsenic an action-adventure that reflects their "lifetime commitment" to Games-as-a-Service, and stating that it would enactment PC and console crossplay. They announced it with a mates of artworks - 1 depicting a close-cropped mage successful a cape, the different immoderate pointy roofs and pennants. The crippled surely would person built upon Starbreeze's established, albeit precocious eroded estimation for co-op heisting. Now, however, Starbreeze bosses person decided that doubling down connected Payday is the safer way forward.

"This was a hard but indispensable decision," comments CEO Adolf Kristjansson successful a merchandise to investors. "Our strategy is clear: Payday is 1 of the astir iconic IPs successful gaming, with unmatched scope and potential. By focusing our concern and endowment here, we tin accelerate delivery, prosecute players with much content, and reenforce Starbreeze's presumption arsenic the wide person successful the heisting genre. This is astir sharpening our absorption to make the strongest semipermanent worth for our players, our people, and our shareholders."

Around 44 people, spanning employees and contractors, are to suffer their roles astatine Starbreeze successful the people of penning disconnected Baxter. The property merchandise adds that "the discontinuation of Baxter, combined with an accrued absorption connected the Payday franchise, volition alteration Starbreeze to go cash-flow affirmative successful 2026." For context, cash-flow affirmative means you person much wealth coming successful implicit a fixed period, than going retired - it's not the aforesaid arsenic being wide profitable. Starbreeze made a immense nonaccomplishment successful their fiscal twelvemonth 2024 aft a catastrophic motorboat showing for Payday 3.

Kristjansson ends the merchandise by thanking the Baxter squad and D&D licence owners Wizards of the Coast, adding that enactment connected Baxter "will transportation guardant into Payday and the aboriginal of Starbreeze". Maybe they should springiness the laid-off Baxter squad members a Special Thanks recognition successful Payday 4, assuming that's adjacent connected the agenda. Best of luck to everybody affected.