Payday 3 Studio Hit With Layoffs

Starbreeze Studios, the developer of Payday 3, is reportedly shedding a variety of its workers. Although Starbreeze itself hasn’t made an official assertion, workers working on the firm have shared the information on their very own, with some former Payday 3 builders left reeling as they search for new work.

Payday 3, Starbreeze’s newest recreation, has seen a variety of troubles since its launch in 2023. Payday 3 saw mixed reviews from critics at launch and holds a combined overview common on Steam from gamers to today. Though the studio has taken steps to try to enhance upon the title and regain its fanbase via the discharge of recent updates and heists, it is struggled to search out its footing, and the lack of these jobs could also be a part of extra unhealthy information for the corporate.

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Starbreeze Studios Hit By Layoffs Once more

Sadly, some recreation builders at the moment are searching for work after being laid off by Starbreeze Studios. Starbreeze QA Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath posted on his LinkedIn account that “many” employees at Starbreeze had obtained information that they have been shedding their positions, and that he was searching for new jobs, anticipating that he could be on the listing of these being axed at Starbreeze. One other Starbreeze dev, Senior Tech Producer Sabina af Jochnick, shared that her function had been “recognized as vulnerable to redundancy,” so she too could be searching for work elsewhere in anticipation of shedding her place.

Starbreeze hasn’t made an official assertion relating to the layoffs, so it is not recognized how many individuals are shedding their jobs but. Nevertheless, the writing could have been on the wall relating to these new terminations, given Payday 3 and Starbreeze’s latest historical past. Starbreeze laid off round 15% of the corporate between 2024 and early 2025, adopted by extra jobs misplaced in late 2025 following the cancellation of Starbreeze’s Dungeons and Dragons game, dubbed Undertaking Baxter. Monetary stories in 2024 additionally indicated that the corporate had skilled a lack of $18.5 million USD, so there have been troubles for fairly some time.

Payday 3 Struggled to Regain Fanbase

After saying in 2025 that Starbreeze had acquired the publishing rights to Payday 3, the developer shared that doing so would assist them to speed up content material improvement and “pursue broader strategic alternatives for the Payday franchise.” Shortly after on Could 26, 2025, a new heist was released for Payday 3 within the type of Get together Powder, the Supply Cost heist DLC was added after that, and the sport closed out 2025 by releasing the awaited Ability 2.0 replace.

It appeared like issues may need been getting better for Starbreeze and Payday 3 for some time in 2025, nevertheless it did not see a serious revival of the playerbase, a minimum of on Steam. On the time of publication of this text, Payday 3 has seen a 24-hour peak of simply 686 concurrent gamers on the Steam platform. Wanting again at its replace historical past, the Get together Powder heist launch noticed the concurrent participant rely rise to simply shy of three,000, with further smaller spikes round June, July, and September. Nevertheless, when the two.0 Abilities Replace launched, Payday 3 could not fairly attain 2,000 concurrent gamers on Steam. Comparatively, when the sport first launched, it noticed practically 78,000 concurrent gamers on the platform.

Whereas Starbreeze has had issues with delivering what gamers need in Payday 3, which has sophisticated issues, the developer is much from the one recreation studio in latest historical past to see layoffs, and it is unlikely to be the final. In 2025 alone, Amazon Video games, EA, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Niantic, Sq. Enix, and plenty of extra laid off game developers and different workers. With 2026 having barely kicked off, it is seemingly that many comparable tales will transpire over the course of the yr.