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Report: Payday 2 turns a profit six days before launch
Pre-orders of Payday 2 already made back the money that publisher 505 Games provided Starbreeze Studios for development, Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson-Klint said in a statement to investors (translated by Gamereactor). Payday 2 launches on August 13, and any incoming sales are profit to be split between 505 and Starbreeze. "Today Starbreeze has once again demonstrated that our strategy of focusing on our own properties is correct," Andersson-Klint said. "Not only have we managed to deliver a desirable product in Payday 2 but also executed a promotion that few companies of our size can. We now look forward to the royalty income that can secure the company's development of its own IP in the future. That Payday 2 generates revenue for the company six days before the release is of course very unusual for games of this size and strengthens the long-term nature of our strategy." Hey, everyone. What day is it? Payday.
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 Summer of Arcade 2013 full schedule, pricing revealed
This year's Summer of Arcade event kicks off on Xbox Live August 7 with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, the Starbreeze-developed Xbox Live Arcade game where players must simultaneously control a pair of brothers stuck in the wilderness. Brothers will launch at 1,200 MS Points ($15). James Silva's Charlie Murder, a 2D beat-em-up starring a punk band for 800 MS Points ($10), will launch the following week, on August 14, Major Nelson reports. On August 21, VectorCell will push out its remake of classic adventure game Flashback for 800 MS Points ($10), and rounding out this year's festivities is TMNT: Out of the Shadows on August 28 for 1,200 MS Points ($15).
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 planning an August heist, web series starts in two weeks
Payday 2, the Overkill-developed crook sim, is set to launch in August. The news comes at the end of the trailer above, which teases a new web series set to start in two weeks. We have yet to see any actual Payday 2 gameplay beyond a brief teaser issued in March, but feel free to case our gallery of in-game shots below. Payday 2 – which adds classes and a contracts database on top of its predecessor's core robbery mechanics – is planning its heist on Steam, PS3 and Xbox 360. Pre-orders are open on Steam right now and all who sign up early will get an in-game loot pack. %Gallery-189209%
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.
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.
Playing with age in Starbreeze's 'Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons'
"Nobody knows how to make a game yet," says film director Josef Fares, quickly clarifying his statement isn't an attack on the industry but a suggestion that game creation shouldn't be a set science. "It's still a time where we're open to experimentation," the international director adds.Born in Lebanon, Fares grew up in Sweden where he became a director, but his next project pairs him with developer Starbreeze Games to create a game called Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (formerly referred to as "P13" in Starbreeze's internal "project" numbering system). Brothers has been in development for a number of years, with Fares even working on a few of the game's prototypes before the team at Starbreeze locked down the Unreal-developed downloadable title for a 2013 release.The core feature of Brothers is, of course, the game's siblings. But Fares says he's fought off all suggestions by his fellow game makers that the characters should each be controlled by a separate player. Instead, he says, Brothers is designed to have both characters controlled by a single player in a very specifically designed campaign experience.%Gallery-169592%
Starbreeze's 'P13' now 'Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons'
Starbreeze has officially taken the wraps off of its mysterious original IP known previously as "P13," unveiling its new, official title, the tautological Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.The Unreal Engine-powered game follows two boys (who are brothers, and also sons) as they go on a journey to retrieve the "Water of Life" for their sick father. Filmmaker Josef Fares is collaborating with Starbreeze and 505 on the development of this XBLA, PSN, and PC game.The first trailer is above, revealing what looks like a very pretty fantasy action-adventure experience. Brothers will be released spring 2013.%Gallery-166855%
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."
Starbreeze CEO doesn't think Syndicate 'could've ever lived up to some people's expectations'
CEO and President of Starbreeze Studios Mikael Nermark appears to have mixed feelings about Syndicate, the FPS reboot his team launched earlier this year. Syndicate snagged the No. 2 spot during its launch week with sales of 34,000, just 2,000 shy of Asura's Wrath. Even after such a squeeze, Nermark tells Joystiq he isn't disappointed in Syndicate, numerically or otherwise:"Sales? What can I say?" Nermark says, inadvertently answering his own rhetorical question. "So many things depend on whether sales are good or not good. And it can always be better, right? You always want it to be better."Being "not disappointed" isn't the same as being overwhelmingly, truly happy with a title, nor is it the same as being devastated – it seems Nermark is still working out how exactly he feels about Syndicate, but he's made up his mind about Starbreeze itself."Personally, I've never been satisfied with any games I've worked on. I never play my own games," Nermark says. "I was brought into Starbreeze two and a half years ago, and the first year I worked on other things than on production. But what I saw coming out of this long production time, I'm proud of what we did at Starbreeze."
Starbreeze attempting acquisition of Payday: The Heist studio
Starbreeze, the Swedish studio that brought the world the surprise hit Chronicles of Riddick and the recent reboot of Syndicate, is attempting an acquisition of Payday: The Heist studio Overkill Software. Pending approval by Starbreeze's shareholders, the move will see Overkill's IP (including Payday) and staff become part of Starbreeze's stable.Beyond the acquisition of IP and staff, Overkill is set to establish a new Starbreeze office based out of Stockholm, Sweden. "Starbreeze has graphical emphasis, and Overkill has total focus on innovative gameplay. Together we form a unique constellation of creative forces," Overkill creative director Ulf Andersson said of the acquisition in a press release.Overkill Software was formed in the ashes of former third-party mega studio Grin Software back in 2009, after it collapsed following several commercially unsuccessful projects. Brothers Bo and Ulf Andersson started Overkill, and it's unclear how their roles will change (if at all) in the new setup. The acquisition – if approved by Starbreeze's shareholders – is set to go into effect in mid-June.
Starbreeze working on free-to-play title 'Cold Mercury'
Syndicate and Riddick developer Starbreeze's next project will be a free-to-play title. GI.biz reports the title will be called Cold Mercury, but any further details would require Syndicate-style deep extraction on Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark. The exec also noted the title does not mean the company is moving away from AAA development."We are discussing with several leading game publisher on publisher financed games, but we will broaden our product portfolio of games in the new business models and segments that have arisen in the games industry," said Nermark. "I am convinced that Starbreeze will be successful with the new games."The company is also currently seeking a distribution deal for P13, the project announced late last year in collaboration with Swedish film director Josef Fares.
