Things are looking very grim over at Starbreeze Studios. It seems highly likely that the studio main not last another year, as it is looking for enough funds to stay afloat. If things do not improve, the studio can shut down in a month or two.
Starbreeze warned its shareholders about the situation and had been in financial trouble for a while now. In its quarterly shareholder report, Starbreeze informed investors that they do not expect to last more than 12 months at the current pace.
The company currently lacks sufficient secured funds to guarantee continued operations for the next 12 months and is expected to have a liquidity shortfall before mid-year 2019 if no additional funds are provided. These conditions indicate that there are significant uncertainties that can lead to significant doubts about the company’s ability to continue its business.
Things are not completely done and dusted for the studio as the team is still evaluating their options, and Payday, which is the multiplayer heist series, is still down pretty well for them. The studio might look into restructuring the monetization of the game to works something out.
The studio took a big hit when its zombie game Overkill’s The Walking Dead failed to impress, and the series owners canceled Starbreeze’s license and pulled the game off from selling. The struggles continued as its CEO stepped down, and the studio sold their publishing rights to System Shock 3 back to the developer.
Mikael Nermark, who stepped in as the new CEO of Starbreeze had his say shortly after joining Starbreeze,
My main task is to secure financing for the company’s future operations. This involves both long-term financing we can use to build the Starbreeze of the future, but also making sure that the assets we have determined are unrelated to the core business are managed in a commercially viable way. Once this financing has been secured, we will be able to look ahead and present a more detailed strategy for the future.
We can only hope things start to get on track for Starbreeze and that they can work something out to prevent a complete shutdown of the studio. Post your comments below.
