Swedish developer Starbreeze had accumulatively lost around £8.66m from 1998 to June 2013, but within just two quarters their generated profit before tax reached £9.59m. Starbreeze is back in the black.
What’s to thank for this? Starbreeze boss Bo Andersson points to ”new business model, reorganisation” and establishing their own IPs: Payday and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
Today, Payday 2 enjoys being ranked the fifth largest community on Steam with over 350k active users, with little sign of its momentum slowing down, with two more years of content due.
”Thanks to our new business model, reorganisation and a focus on our own brands, we have - in only two quarters - generated a profit before tax of SEK 104 million (£9.59m). I would like to think that is what they call a turnaround.”
”We now have a large cash reserve, have created a stable cost structure, a modern business model,” Andersson concluded. ”We have continued full control of our own brands and have placed ourselves into a position where we have three games that generate royalties every single day.”
A £3.6m contract was signed with 505 Games to keep pumping out fresh goods for the heist-based shooter, while Starbreeze’s smaller project - Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - is now in profit and sold very well over the past fiscal quarter due to its accolades and Steam sales. The Syndicate reboot with EA is but a distant memory.
