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505 Games acquires Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons IP for $500K
Starbreeze announced the sale of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons to 505 Games today in a deal worth $500,000. Starbreeze CEO Andersson Klint said the transaction represented his studio's "final transition to the digital strategy," following its recent efforts to push sales through digital distribution channels. The deal includes full rights to the game and intellectual property (IP). With Brothers, Swedish studio Starbreeze created a new IP that gained strong traction with critics and consumers alike. The story-driven puzzle platformer earned a spot in our top 10 of 2013 and went on to sell more than 800,000 units to date.
Starbreeze acquires 'toys-to-life' studio for $7 million in shares
Payday 2 and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons publisher Starbreeze Studios has purchased Geminose, a developer working on a new, toy-incorporating IP that's comparable to the Skylanders and Disney Infinity franchises. The acquisition, made via North American subsidiary Starbreeze USA Inc., is worth $7 million of shares in Starbreeze Studios, with an additional $3 million in cash possible, should Geminose reach unspecified performance targets set for the next five years. In a related press release, Starbreeze explains that Geminose will "strengthen Starbreeze's range of IP's further to include a youth targeted franchise, 'Geminose.'" (The game shares a name with its developer.) "The Geminose franchise combines physical toys and interactive multiplatform gameplay for youths aged 5-12." An included statement from Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint remarks that Geminose will see development "during 2015/2016," so we can't expect a fresh competitor to line up beside Skylanders, Disney figurines and amiibos anytime soon. The Geminose studio is led by Cos Lazouras and Foo Katan, which the pair's accumulative experience including work at Warner Bros. Interactive, Bits Studios and Tigon Studios, where Lazouras produced Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Starbreeze has managed acquisitions before, including its 2012 purchase of Overkill Software, developer of Payday 2 and an upcoming co-op shooter based on the The Walking Dead. [Image: Starbreeze Studios]
Payday developer reveals co-op Walking Dead game
Payday series developers Overkill Software and Starbreeze Studios revealed that they are working on a Walking Dead game of its own. The Walking Dead creator and Skybound Entertainment CEO Robert Kirkman said the new take on the zombie survival series is the "co-op game that all of the Walking Dead fans have been waiting for" in a Payday 2 Steam community update. Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint said the developer "will bring The Walking Dead into the world of first-person shooter co-op games," and that it will be "gameplay focused, ferocious and bring chaos to the traditional industry model." While the developer did not specify the game's targeted platforms, it did mention that it will be powered by Starbreeze's Diesel engine, "updated for the next generation." It is expected to launch in 2016, which is when "Washington falls," according to the announcement trailer. [Image: Overkill]
Joystiq Top 10 of 2013: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Team Joystiq is barging into 2014 with a celebration of last year's best games. Keep reading throughout the week to see our assembly of ingenious indies and triple-A triumphs. At first glance, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons isn't a particularly novel game. It offers an emotional rollercoaster of an adventure without the need for actual dialog. Big deal, right? Journey was a clear favorite last year, Limbo before that, and both had some stylistic similarities. And yet, Brothers is a true rarity, as it places the gravity of its compact story right in your hands. Brothers places you at the feet of a journey in which two boys set out to retrieve a cure for their father's illness from a mystical tree. The game never bothers you with trivial details like names of the characters, the town, or just where the hell you're going the whole while. That information, often window dressing used to bring some sense of reality and purpose to any story, is discarded in favor of the game's stripped-down, puzzle-platformer design: See obstacle, get through it. More specifically, get through it together.
Payday 2 update brings PS3 version closer to PC
Overkill has issued a significant update for the PS3 version of Payday 2, bringing that console's version up to par with the latest version of the game on PC. There are over 200 tweaks that have been made to the PS3 game, including a complete overhaul of the weapons rating system, adjustments to how stealth works and some fixes for a few persistent crash bugs. The game's economy system has also been updated to pay out more cash for looted bags as well as XP from completed missions. The full patch notes are quite extensive, so feel free to pore over them in this Steam post. A patch for the Xbox 360 version is currently in the works.
Overkill adding 5 DLC packs to Payday 2, would 'love' to add mods
Overkill Software producer Almir Listo recently said the studio has "a year of DLC planned" for Payday 2, its multiplayer heist game that launched this week on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 (August 23 for Xbox Games on Demand). Listo tells Joystiq that five DLC packs in total are in the works. "Payday 2 - just like its predecessor Payday: The Heist - is a living thing. We have 5 DLCs planned together with 505 Games for the coming year." Listo went on to say that Overkill would continue to update the game with both paid and free content, "just like we did with the first game." In Payday 2, the same maps are recycled over many different types of jobs, suggesting a natural fit for modding support or Steamworks integration. "We would love to add support for creating community generated content," Listo said, but in the meantime the team will "continue to look into this." Listo posted a message on Steam yesterday about absent safe house customization options and Cloakers, special heavy-duty police units seen in the beta. Both will be added down the line: "The safe house is what we intended it to be at release," Listo said. "Just like Bain says when you enter the safe house for the first time, it's not much at the moment, but give it some time. He's working on it and he'll let us do some decorating soon." Finally, Listo addressed the idea of further franchise crossovers. The first Payday had a mission set in the No Mercy map of Left 4 Dead, serving as a non-canon prequel to Valve's co-op zombie shooting gallery. On this point Listo said, "We can't discuss if we have any crossovers planned right now, but we will let you know when/if that should change."
Payday 2 review: Take the money and run
Payday 2 is a heist-em-up starring four crooks – codenamed Dallas, Hoxton, Chains and Wolf – who take on a series of jobs in the hopes of earning enough cash to retire on a beach somewhere, sipping fruity drinks with little plastic umbrellas in them. It's a nice fantasy, but Payday 2 proves that you can't plan for everything. No two jobs, despite being of similar set-up, go down in the same way – and without the help of few friends, you'll never survive long enough to reach that tropical paradise.%Gallery-195861%
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons traveling to PC on Aug. 28, PSN on Sep. 3
Those looking to begin their journey in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons on PC or PS3 need to wait a little while longer, as the game will launch on August 28 for Steam users and on the PSN on September 3. Brothers launched on the Xbox 360 this week, kicking off Microsoft's annual Summer of Arcade promotion. In Brothers, players use both joysticks to simultaneously control two boys who leave their village in search of a cure for their ailing father. We rather enjoyed our time with the Xbox 360 version of the game, so we eagerly await its arrival on Steam and PSN.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Review: Do Not Separate
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is an essential treasure to play. I promise, the game's sincere quality absolves the terribleness of its title, which is barely a step up from "Characters: A Story of Them." And yet it truly is a story of them, two boys who leave their humble village behind in a quest for a mythical cure. Their father has fallen ill, and with the loss of Mother ever-fresh in mind, the brothers hope to pluck the solution from a far-off magical tree and undo the fragility that has befallen their family. The involvement of Stockholm-based film director Josef Fares is in plain sight, the camera looking down upon the two boys as they crawl under forests and over frigid mountains. Keeping both characters in frame emphasizes the necessity of cooperation between the two, while the top-down view makes their movements easier to comprehend, as if they were twin hockey pucks gliding across the ice. As much as it may seem to be a traditional co-op game, Brothers divides the attention of a single player between two bodies, with tall Big Brother on the left analog stick and golden-haired Little Brother on the right.%Gallery-169592%
Payday 2 set to take Steam on August 13
Overkill Software's Payday 2 is ready for action on August 13 through Steam. Overkill also confirmed this morning the game will show up to other platform parties between August 13 and 16. "A big thank you to our Payday community, to everyone who has helped us beta test the game so far and posted messages online, sent us feedback and told us how much you appreciate our work. We salute you," the dev wrote as part of the announcement. Have fun storming the vault, hope you make it back.
Xbox One media overflow: Kinect Sports Rivals, Zoo Tycoon and more
Microsoft's Xbox One event was a veritable cornucopia of game reveals and trailers for next-gen releases, but apparently the time allotted wasn't enough to show every single trailer for all of the new games coming to both the Xbox One and Xbox 360. In addition to this trailer for Rare's Kinect Sports Rivals for Xbox One, looks at Starbreeze Studios' new Xbox 360 jam Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Frontier's Xbox One iteration of Zoo Tycoon and Zoë Mode's Powerstar Golf are also available beyond the veil.
Payday 2 wants unmarked, non-sequential bills this August
Starbreeze-owned developer Overkill Software will launch Payday 2 this August on consoles and PC. Publisher 505 Games announced this morning the game will no longer be limited to digital distribution networks, with retail versions planned for Xbox 360 and PS3. "We're expecting great things from Payday 2 and are really looking forward to working with our retail partners all over the world to make it the huge success it deserves to be," said 505 Games Head of Global Brand Tim Woodley. Payday: The Heist sold around a half-million copies and the sequel received a creative injection last year when it was announced Battlefield 3 lead designer David Goldfarb exited EA to work on the project.
Go behind the scenes with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
This video for Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons sheds a little light on the creative process that Starbreeze Studios adopted to bring the brothers' adventure to life. The game is slated to launch this Spring on PC, XBLA and PSN.
Payday 2 will feature a 'contract database,' coming this summer
Starbreeze has revealed new features, game upgrades, and a release window for Payday 2, the sequel the Overkill-developed multiplayer shooter Payday: The Heist. According to a new fact sheet released today, Overkill's latest is due out this summer as a downloadable game on Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and the PC via Steam.The first game only offered a few different "heists" to play, but the sequel features CRIMENET, a "contract database" offering dozens of different jobs to take, which can take place across multiple stages and change according to certain equipment purchases (like a faster escape car or an inside man). Additionally, each level has a new amount of dynamic content, including random layouts or rare events, and finishing each job rewards loot like new masks, weapons, or other accessories.Players also get to choose a profession of Mastermind, Enforcer, Ghost or Technician, each with its own skills and equipment to use, and can work their way up from the lowest thug on the totem pole to high-end heisters as they play. That summer release is coming up quick, so we should see more of the game very soon.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons shows how to push your sibling's buttons
Sure, it's nice and all to see brothers work together to solve their problems in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, but which button lets me give the younger brother a noogie? What move lets me embarrass big bro while he's asking the head cheerleader to the Soph Hop?
'Storm' named as Starbreeze's next sci-fi FPS
Starbreeze Studios (Syndicate, The Darkness) has nonchalantly announced Storm on its company site. The in-development game is billed as a (hyphen-overload) co-op sci-fi first-person shooter.The Storm listing was originally picked up by German site PlaySyndicate, after which VG24/7 theorized a link between the low-key announcement and Starbreeze's "Cold Mercury" project.Besides Storm, which has yet to be described in more detail, Starbreeze is hard at work on Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and Payday 2.
505 and Starbreeze teaming up for Payday 2 and P13 in 2013
Developer Starbreeze has revealed 505 Games will be its publishing partner for the upcoming sequel to the multiplayer-focused shooter, Payday: The Heist, along with original intellectual property P13, in development for the PSN, XBLA, and PC. Both games are planned for launch in 2013.Starbreeze, which was behind EA's recent attempt to reboot the classic Syndicate series, acquired Payday alongside developer Overkill Studios earlier this year.Though P13 is still masked in secrecy, we know it will be a downloadable "action-adventure game" and that Starbreeze has partnered with Swedish film director Josef Fares to help guide its "storyline, look and feel."
Ex-Battlefield lead David Goldfarb now at Starbreeze, working on Payday sequel
Last month, we heard that Battlefield 3 lead designer David Goldfarb exited EA's Sweden-based DICE studio. It seems that Goldfarb is staying in the country, as he's accepted a job at Starbreeze-owned developer Overkill Software. Goldfarb announced as much on Twitter, donning the above Payday: The Heist mask and scaring children worldwide.Goldfarb is set to work alongside studio lead Ulf Andersson on a sequel to Payday, as well as an unannounced title Overkill is working on. "I've worked on these huge games, and that was great, but I really wanted to work on smaller, tighter, and more intimate projects that are more gameplay driven, and I saw the opportunity to do that here," Goldfarb told Develop. Andersson added, "I'm really looking forward to this to see if we can make something really cool together."
Payday's bank robbers take over Left 4 Dead's Mercy Hospital
Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time! The bank robbing bad guys from Payday are getting crossed with Left 4 Dead's zombie-filled Mercy Hospital – apparently prior to the events of L4D – in an upcoming mission pack. See for yourself above.
Starbreeze's 'P13' headed to XBLA, PSN, and PC
Compared to other Swedish game development powerhouses – DICE, Avalanche, Massive – Syndicate developer Starbreeze keeps a lower profile. Having only released two projects in the last five years, Starbreeze isn't offering many consistent reminders that it still exists. Company president and CEO Mikael Nermark is aiming to change that, and his first two major projects are two games you probably haven't heard of: P13 and Cold Mercury."We're trying to build four independent core teams," Nermark told me in a phone interview earlier today. Beyond the existing teams at Starbreeze, the newly acquired Overkill Software wil serve as one of those four teams. So, four "core teams," four projects. We know Overkill is working on a sequel to last year's Payday: The Heist, and we know that two other teams are working on P13 and Cold Mercury (respectively), but that fourth team is a mystery.Nermark wouldn't budge on new details about Cold Mercury, but he told me that P13 is currently "in the middle of production" and "it's going really well." The game is heading to Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and PC. Starbreeze brought in an outside force to take creative lead on the project: Swedish director Josef Fares."He's one of the most or maybe the most famous movie directors in Sweden of all time. He's never done a game before, but he's an avid gamer and he loves games. So he actually left the movie industry and this guy is like having one of the top guys – this is the top guy in Sweden making movies. So he's actually working for us full-time," Nermark said. "To Swedes, this is like having a guy like Christopher Nolan working on the game on a daily basis."
