Popreach Corp. has signed an asset purchase agreement and licensing agreement with Starbreeze Studios AB for the relaunch of mobile title Payday Crime War. Under the terms of the asset purchase agreement, Starbreeze will receive a payment of US$250K in exchange for all rights and title to the existing PAYDAY Crime War source code and game assets. Concurrently, the parties have entered into a five year licensing agreement granting PopReach the right to publish PAYDAY Crime War worldwide, and access to assets from the PAYDAY 2 PC game for use in PAYDAY Crime War. PopReach will be responsible for completing development, marketing, live operations and user acquisition for PAYDAY Crime War, which it expects to soft launch in Q4 2021. Starbreeze will receive tiered royalties on net sales equivalent to its PC and console licensing deals, and retains all IP rights to the PAYDAY franchise.
PAYDAY Crime War is a standalone first person shooter game that takes place in the PAYDAY universe. PAYDAY is one of the most successful game franchises in the world with an installed base of over 28 million games. PAYDAY 2, launched in 2013, has become the largest game community on Steam, the top digital distribution platform for PC gaming, and has over 7.1 million members as of March 2021. PAYDAY Crime War is based on a free-to-play business model and will have access to the PAYDAY 2 PC game and game assets that have sold over 105 million additional downloadable content (DLC's).
"PAYDAY is an incredibly popular co-op first person shooter franchise that has showed tremendous staying power and enduring appeal. PAYDAY 2 still consistently ranks among the top played PC games on Steam with over 130,000 daily active users. Obtaining the license rights and source code to PAYDAY Crime War is a massive opportunity that fits well within our strategy of acquiring proven game franchises with established product market fit, with a large built-in audience and deep universe to draw from, including an extensive pipeline of more than 70 PAYDAY 2 content updates years in the making. We believe that PAYDAY Crime War has the potential to generate substantial revenue for PopReach, given the longstanding success of the franchise, and the fact that it will be the first mobile free-to-play PAYDAY game", said Jon Walsh, CEO of PopReach.
PAYDAY Crime War has been in development since 2017, and was soft launched as a closed beta in 2019; however, the shutdown of the mobile gaming division at NBCUniversal left it without a publisher and the launch was postponed. Completion and worldwide launch of PAYDAY Crime War will be led by Vlad Ceraldi, PopReach's SVP of Worldwide Studios. Mr. Ceraldi was previously responsible for the creation and commercialization of highly successful free-to-play action game franchises, including KillShot and Hero Hunters, which have collectively grossed over $150 million in revenue.
"It's an exciting time for all of us at Starbreeze, during the last month we've changed the trajectory for the company by securing deals around the PAYDAY IP. We look forward to working with PopReach to ensure that PAYDAY Crime War brings the same action-packed gameplay our players and community already know and love to mobile devices. PopReach has a proven track record and has successfully developed and launched free-to-play mobile titles based on well-known IPs, and our collaboration will be an important component of our strategy to further expand the PAYDAY franchise", said Tobias Sjogren, CEO of Starbreeze.