Tobias Sjögren: Last News

Payday 3 developer Starbreeze has fired its CEO, Tobias Sjögren, following the underperformance of the heist-themed first-person shooter.In a notice to investors, Starbreeze stated it has appointed Juergen Goeldner as interim CEO. Goeldner is the former Focus Entertainment CEO and has over 40 years of experience in the video game industry.

Payday developer Starbreeze Studios has announced a new co-op Dungeons & Dragons title.Starbreeze will both develop and publish the game, with the title planned to launch in 2026. The game currently holds the codename of Project: Baxter and is being produced in Unreal Engine 5.

Starbreeze Studios has claimed that matchmaking issues with Payday 3 have been fixed, following the heist shooter’s rocky launch last month.Following its release on September 21, Payday 3 struggled with significant server issues that prevented players from matchmaking and starting heists. Due to the game’s always-online nature, this meant Payday 3 has been frequently unplayable, and last week Starbreeze claimed a third-party matchmaking partner was responsible for the errors.Today (October 2), a post on Starbreeze’s website announced that “initial matchmaking issues” have since been fixed, and the studio “will now intensify the commercial activities around Payday 3“.Tobias Sjögren, the CEO of Starbreeze Entertainment, also thanked players for their “patience” with Payday‘s launch.“Our community is the engine that drives both our games and our company forward,” he shared.

Payday 3‘s launch issues have been so severe that Starbreeze is considering removing its controversial always-online requirement.Payday 3, which launched for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on September 21, became a trending topic on social media sites like X for sporadic server connections, crashes, persistent matchmaking issues and incorrect versions of the game being playable on PS5.Given that it had been a decade since Payday 2, these problems irked players who had been awaiting the third game with a lot of anticipation. Starbreeze’s CEO said that the team would “work tirelessly” to ensure that Payday 3 would meet their expectations once more following these unfortunate incidents.In an official statement, the developer explained that “matchmaking software encountered an unforeseen error” and that this overloaded the third-party matchmaking partner that handled the game.It reiterated that this issue did not manifest in either the technical beta or early access periods for Payday 3 and that the team is dedicated to resolving it in the immediate.“In the short-term, this means Starbreeze’ focus is to ensure the player experience.

Payday 3 developer Starbreeze says that it is not intending to rush out the much-anticipated sequel to 2012’s Payday 2.In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren reiterated the game’s planned launch window of 2023, saying that the long wait is essential to ensure its quality.“That time is what you need to make a game good,” Sjögren said of the long development time.