14 DAY TRIAL // Starbreeze, the developer of the Syndicate reboot, has announced that it was buying Overkill Software studio, which has recently launched Payday: The Heist, in order to evolve its development capabilities for the upcoming V13 and Project Mercury games.
Mikael Nermark, the chief executive officer at Starbreeze, has told Eurogamer that, “They will still continue to grow the first Payday, to enhance that experience, and move to the sequel.
“They’re doing great stuff, and I’m not going to change that in any way. We’re going to give them the creative freedom to do what they’ve done so well.”
He says that his own company will benefit from the deal because it allows it to grow and develop more projects.
The CEO added, “All the new products Starbreeze are doing, we will build from the Starbreeze DNA in story and narrative. We will always strive for getting the highest graphics fidelity in our games. We also always want to bring something new and innovative to the table. That’s how we choose projects internally.”
Payday has managed to do well on the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and the PC and Overkill Software has managed to generate sales of 2.3 million dollars (1.74 million Euro) and profits of 639,000 dollars (486,116 Euro).
Payday: The Heist has managed to sell more than 400,000 units since it was launched in October 2011.
The acquisition of Overkill will be completed in June and the purchase price will consist of 200 million shares in Starbreeze.
At the moment, Nermark also says that his studio is not working on a sequel to the rebooted Syndicate, although it would be happy to work on such a project as long as Electronic Arts was ready to fund the game.
The new Syndicate was a pretty classic first-person shooter that also included some special powers and an art style similar to that of the new Deus Ex.