{"title":"Starbreeze Entertainment","description":"\u003cp\u003eStarbreeze began in 1998 in Härnösand, Sweden, founded by Magnus Högdahl, a former member of the Triton demoscene group, and its first project, Sorcery, was canceled before release. In 2001 it merged with Uppsala-based O3 Games, a 1998 startup known for the 2000 space strategy game The Outforce, keeping the Starbreeze name, and on November 27, 2002 the parent company was renamed Starbreeze AB. What followed was a run that earned the studio a reputation for atmospheric, technically ambitious action games, usually made for another publisher. Enclave (2002) was a dark fantasy action game; The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004, Vivendi Games) turned a film tie-in into a first-person prison break mixing stealth, brawling and shooting, and is still widely regarded as one of the finest licensed games ever made; The Darkness (2007, 2K Games) brought the same moody first-person craft to a comic adaptation; and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (2009, Atari) paired a remastered Butcher Bay with a new campaign. Syndicate (2012, Electronic Arts) reimagined Bullfrog's classic as a first-person shooter and became a commercial disappointment, after which many senior staff left to found MachineGames, while Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (2013, 505 Games), a fairy tale in which a single controller steers two brothers at once, proved the studio could tell a quiet, affecting story as well as a violent one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe 2012 acquisition of Overkill Software, maker of PAYDAY: The Heist, changed the company's direction. PAYDAY 2 followed in 2013, and in 2015 Starbreeze announced a move into publishing independent games, starting with RAID: World War II, alongside StarVR, a virtual reality headset in which it sold a 66.7% stake to Acer in October 2017. In 2016 it bought the PAYDAY IP back from 505 Games. The expansion ended abruptly when Overkill's The Walking Dead underperformed after its November 2018 release: Starbreeze filed for reconstruction on December 3, 2018, CEO Bo Andersson stepped down, and through 2019 the company sold its Dhruva Interactive stake to Rockstar Games and the Psychonauts 2 publishing rights to Microsoft, laid off about a quarter of its staff and split into New Starbreeze Publishing AB and New Starbreeze Studios AB, before the reconstruction was completed and approved by the court on December 6, 2019. A €50 million publishing deal with Koch Media, signed in 2021, carried PAYDAY 3 to its 2023 release under Deep Silver, and in 2024 the company licensed Notoriety: A PAYDAY Experience on Roblox. Adolf Kristjansson became CEO on March 31, 2025, and that October Starbreeze discontinued Project Baxter, its Dungeons \u0026amp; Dragons game, to concentrate on PAYDAY, handing PC maintenance of PAYDAY 2 to partner studio Sidetrack Games so its own teams could stay on PAYDAY 3. Headquartered in Stockholm and publishing today as Starbreeze Entertainment, the company is now the home of the heist shooter, and its catalog runs from some of the most respected first-person games of the 2000s to a co-op shooter still receiving new heists more than a decade after launch.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"payday-2-pc-download","title":"PAYDAY 2","description":"\u003cp class=\"lead\"\u003ePAYDAY 2 is the four-player co-op heist shooter from Overkill Software. You put on the masks of Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf and Chains, the original PAYDAY crew, as they set up shop in Washington DC. Pick a contract and case the place. Then decide whether the score goes down in silence or in a storm of gunfire, split the take and go again for something bigger.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eTake a Contract on CRIMENET\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCRIMENET is the crew's job board, a database of contracts that keeps changing as you play. The work runs from small-time convenience store hits and kidnappings to big league cyber-crime and emptying out major bank vaults. As the crew's reputation grows, the jobs get bigger, better and more rewarding. Every contract comes from a local contact with an agenda of their own:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eVlad the Ukrainian\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eVlad is a cheerful gangster with a taste for chaos. He sends crews after convenience stores, nightclubs and shopping malls, usually because a rival needs to learn a lesson, and he pays well for a job done loudly.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eThe Elephant\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eThe Elephant is a shady politician with plenty to protect. He hires the crew for the kind of political errands Washington runs on, like framing his rivals and nudging an election his way.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eHector\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eHector is a South American drug trafficker fighting a cartel war far from home. Working for him means guarding and moving shipments of cocaine, cooking meth against the clock and hitting the competition where it hurts.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003c\/dl\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003ePlay It Your Way\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery job allows more than one approach. A stealth run means scouting the location, slipping past cameras, answering the pagers of guards you have dropped and zip tying any civilian who wanders into view. Going loud means drills, hostages and wave after wave of police assault. That starts with SWAT teams and escalates to Shields, Tasers, Cloakers and the heavily armored Bulldozers who come through the door when things get serious.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo heist plays out quite the same way twice. Layouts shift, loot and objectives move, and rare events can upend a plan you thought you knew by heart. Adjustable difficulty turns a job that teaches you the basics into a brutal test of coordination at the top end. Up to four friends can run a contract together, or you can go in solo with AI crewmates covering your back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eBuild Your Heister\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs you level up, you earn skill points to spend across five Skill Trees, each with its own abilities and equipment. You can mix and match them freely, so a crew can cover every role or go all in on one style:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMastermind:\u003c\/strong\u003e the crew's support specialist. Mastermind keeps teammates on their feet with doctor bags, keeps hostages and civilians in line, and can even turn a surrendered cop into an ally for the rest of the job.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnforcer:\u003c\/strong\u003e the frontline heavy. Enforcer is built to soak up punishment in heavy armor, clear rooms with shotguns and keep everyone supplied with ammo bags when an assault drags on.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTechnician:\u003c\/strong\u003e the crew's engineer. Technician lays trip mines, deploys sentry guns and gets drills and shaped charges through doors and safes faster.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGhost:\u003c\/strong\u003e the stealth specialist. Ghost moves quietly, jams electronics with ECM devices and dodges incoming fire when a quiet plan turns loud.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFugitive:\u003c\/strong\u003e the survivor. Fugitive is built around pistols and close-quarters fighting, and specializes in staying in the fight long after health runs low.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eMasks, Guns and Mods\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYour mask is your signature. You craft it from a pattern and color of your choice, and the combinations run into the millions. The arsenal is built for serious heisters, covering everything from sniper and assault rifles to compact PDWs and SMGs. Once you have a favorite, you can fit optics, suppressors, fore grips, reticles, barrels, frames and stocks, and each part changes how the weapon handles. There are also purely cosmetic touches, so polished walnut grips on your nine are fair game.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eA Heist That Never Ended\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePAYDAY 2 launched in August 2013 and has been updated ever since. Updates have added new heists, characters, weapons and mechanics like driving cars and forklifts. In October 2025 Starbreeze partnered with Sidetrack Games, a studio that grew out of the game's own modding community, to keep the game supported with fixes and quality-of-life updates. An upgraded version of the Diesel engine went live in August 2026. The co-op community is still busy, with tens of thousands of players pulling jobs at the same time. Owners can also add a free VR mode and run heists from inside a headset.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGet three friends together, pick your mask and choose your first contract. The van is waiting, and Washington's vaults are not going to empty themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Starbreeze Entertainment","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":37259175820,"sku":"PC_10248457228_DL_GL","price":10.79,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0875\/3268\/files\/card-payday-2-pc-steam-game.jpg?v=1791478854"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.pjsgames.com\/en-fr\/collections\/starbreeze-entertainment.oembed","provider":"PJ's Games","version":"1.0","type":"link"}