Rockstar acquired Starbreeze’s subsidiary for $8 million

You’ve definitely heard of the Swedish company Starbreeze, which is responsible for the highly successful video game franchise Payday dedicated to masterful heists played in co-op. Despite the popularity of the aforementioned series, the company has been facing financial difficulties for quite some time.

In order not to lose the tracks, Starbreeze was forced to sell some of its assets, and here comes another one – subsidiary Dhruva, an art outsourcing company. It was sold to Rockstar for a total of $7.9 million, and experts predict that the deal will be successfully closed by the end of the next month. This is just another step in a series of attempts to keep Starbreeze away from closure. The company was hit hard by the unexpectedly poor performance of its recent title, co-op zombie action Overkill’s The Walking Dead. Despite having a rather entertaining concept, the game didn’t manage to draw enough attention – mainly due to its gameplay-wise unattractive implementation. The game was received so badly, that Skybound, the company that holds the rights for The Walking Dead IP, had to terminate the Starbreeze’s license to distribute the title. It is currently unavailable for purchase on Steam, although Starbreeze hopes to change the decision in its favour.

The Swedish company has been selling its assets since last year, and to finish the restructuring, Starbreeze lost the rights for 10 Crowns from Mohawk Games and System Shock 3 from OtherSide. The company’s fate will be decided in the course of a year, but the executives note that there’s simply no money left.

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