Lately, every time I write about a gaming company, it’s to announce yet another round of layoffs, and this time, it is no different. However, instead of a lowly employee being shown the door, Starbreeze said, hold my beer, and pushed their CEO out.
Long story short, just a little over six months after the disastrous launch of Payday 3, Starbreeze’s board of directors have decided that the company needs different leadership moving forward.
That means that Sjögren, the CEO of Starbreeze since 2020, is just another industry name that has found themselves jobless. In a press release, Starbreeze had this to say:
The company has a clear strategy centred around creating attractive games on our own and licensed IPs.The board’s consolidated assessment is that the execution of strategy needs a different leadership.
While Payday 3 wasn’t directly mentioned, this layoff was undoubtedly caused by its failure.
While still CEO Sjögren acknowledged that Payday 3’s sales and player activity are currently at significantly lower levels than Starvreeze wanted – and honestly, that was him downplaying things.
According to SteamDM, Payday 3’s peak player count over the last week is only 350, while Payday 2’s is over 31,000.
As of now, Starvreeze has started the search for a new CEO. In the interim, Juergen Goeldner, formerly CEO of Focus Home Interactive and a current member of Starbreeze’s board of directors, will take the lead.