Starbreeze to develop a second Payday experience in Roblox
Starbreeze is doubling down on Roblox. The Swedish company has partnered with Gamefam to bring another Payday experience to the popular user-generated content platform.
In a note to investors, the studio said its second Roblox release will offer "a distinct new entry point into the Payday universe."
The company added that Roblox, which now has 145 million daily active users, continues to "grow in importance as a key platform for Starbreeze" to connect with its existing and new fanbase.
Starbreeze's debut Roblox experience, Notoriety: A Payday Experience—developed under license by Moonstone Games—surpassed 400 million visits and holds a 92 percent player approval rating.
This time, Starbreeze is partnering with Gamefam, which describes itself as an immersive gaming and media company for "Gen Z and Alpha communities." Gamefam has collaborated with Sega and Ubisoft as a Roblox partner in the past.
"Payday has an incredibly dedicated and loyal community on Roblox, and we recognize how important these fans are to the franchise's future," Starbreeze chief growth officer Matt Dixon said.
"Notoriety has built its own community around both the experience and the IP, and that's a real achievement. Our primary goal is to entertain our players, and that means giving them even more ways to enjoy Payday content and immerse themselves in the world of heisting. Partnering with Gamefam gives us the capability and expertise to build something new that sits perfectly alongside what Moonstone has created with Notoriety. We're committed to being where our players are."
Roblox isn't the only platform or medium through which Starbreeze is pushing the Payday IP. In March, the company partnered with VICE Studios to attract "new audiences" into the franchise by adapting the series for film and TV.
The VICE partnership marks Starbreeze's second attempt at creating a live-action adaptation of the franchise, with the publisher having previously partnered with production company Stockholm Syndrome back in 2023.
Outside of its transmedia efforts, Starbreeze has been struggling to make any headway with Payday 3 since it launched in September 2023. The shooter fell short of expectations at launch, leading the publisher to form a "strike team of veteran developers" in a bid to rehabilitate the title.
Yet, as noted in the company's latest fiscal report, Payday 2 was still outperforming its successor during the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year.
Discussing the company's internal structure, CEO Adolf Kristjansson said Starbreeze has taken "deliberate steps" to simplify and align operations, noting that these changes have "enabled clearer decision-making, improved accountability, and stronger cross-functional collaboration."
Starbreeze made layoffs late last year after scrapping a Dungeons & Dragons project to refocus on the Payday series. 44 redundancies were reported alongside an undisclosed number of internal moves.
