Payday 3 developer Starbreeze has seemingly gone through a round of lay-offs. While the studio hasn’t officially announced it, some of its former employees revealed they were let go on LinkedIn. These include Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath, who worked at the company’s QA department, and Sabina af Jochnick, who was a senior tech producer.
Owing to the lack of any official announcement from Starbreeze itself, it is currently unknown how many employees have been affected by this round of lay-offs, aside from Pereswetoff-Morath referring to the number as “many of us”.
“Today, many of us at Starbreeze, Stockholm, got sad news, and I’m now seeking a new role and would appreciate your support,” wrote Pereswetoff-Morath on LinkedIn. “If you hear of any opportunities or just want to catch up, please send me a message or comment below. I’d love to reconnect. That may be quite template-y, but it’s still true. After over 7 years, the longest I’ve ever been at any company in any industry, my time has (more than likely) come.”
af Jochnick noted, these lay-offs were recent, with her own role in the company “at risk of redundancy.” “Due to the recent layoffs at Starbreeze, my role has been identified as at risk of redundancy, so I’m beginning to look at what’s next,” she wrote.
The studio behind Payday 3 has seen several issues, especially since the co-op shooter’s release and poor reception. Back in May 2025, it had announced that it had fully acquired the publishing rights for the game from former publisher Plaion. At the time, Starbreeze board member Thomas Lindgren had said that this transaction would enable the studio to accelerate its planned content roadmap.
“This agreement enables Starbreeze to fully acquire the publishing rights to Payday 3 from Plaion, significantly accelerate our content development roadmap, and pursue broader strategic opportunities for the Payday franchise as a whole,” said Lindgren. “We appreciate Plaion’s support, which underscores their confidence in Starbreeze’s future and strengthens our strategic alignment with major global industry players.”
In October, however, general manager Jonas Skantz and community manager Elisabeth Elvestad had announced that the studio had stopped working on an offline mode for Payday 3. They referred to the feature as “not feasible” due to the size of the team and its priorities on more important things.
In October, Starbreeze had also announced that it had handed over development of Payday 2 to Sidetrack Games, who will continue to support its PC version. The latter studio emerged from the modding community for Payday titles, with its employees having worked on games like RAID: World War 2. Since the hand-off, the developers’ main focus has been on stability and general improvements for Payday 2.
Thanks to its attention no longer being split between two games, Starbreeze has also noted that it intends to “maintain full focus on Payday 3, while Payday 2 continues to deliver value for all players with the dedicated expert support they deserve.”
Payday 3 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our thoughts on the fall of Payday 3 for more details.
