'Payday 3' CEO replaced following game's poor launch

Payday 3 developer Starbreeze has fired its CEO, Tobias Sjögren, following the underperformance of the heist-themed first-person shooter.

• READ MORE: ‘Payday 3’ review: an entertaining crime caper, but it won’t steal any hearts
  

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. He was appointed to the board of Starbreeze last year, and has also worked at companies such as Final Fantasy developer Square Enix.

Starbreeze has begun the recruitment process for a new, permanent CEO. Its statement focuses on the studio’s need to leverage its licensed IPs, and “the board’s consolidated assessment is that the execution of strategy needs a different leadership.” Starbreeze currently has a co-op Dungeons & Dragons game slated for a 2026 launch.

Starbreeze has had a turbulent few years. In 2018, two people were arrested during a raid on its offices for alleged insider trading. According to a Eurogamer report from 2019, Starbreeze “hasn’t had a hit since 2013’s Payday 2.” Unfortunately, its sequel hasn’t done as well as the studio hoped, adding further pressure to the studio.

Released September 21, 2023 Payday 3 launched in a poor state. Former CEO Sjögren apologised at the time, writing “we should be able to do better”. Xbox and PC players were experiencing matchmaking issues and crashes, while PS5 players were actually on an older version of the game, rather than the one that should have been available at launch.

Within a month of the game’s launch, its Steam concurrent player count had dropped to just 10 percent of what it peaked at when first released. Many fans opted to return to Payday 2 instead, favouring the stabler game.

NME‘s review of Payday 3 noted that while the shooting and firefights were satisfying at all difficulty levels, it didn’t have many heists, and new features feel “half-baked.”