Starbreeze Cancels Co-Co-Op Dungeon & Dragons Game Game Baxter, Baxter, Bive Developers, and countdown on payday

Starbreeze canceled the Baxter Project Baxter, its collaborative dungeon and dragon games, abandoned a large portion of its development team and announced plans to double its payday series.

Baxter plans to announce in December 2023 As an Unreal Engine 5 D&D game, it will “with the iconic star-brush cornerstone of cooperative multiplayer, through the game as a service model, community engagement and a game with greater life experience, a lifetime commitment.”

The plan then is to launch Project Baxter on all major platforms in 2026 with Crossplay. But news is scarce, and social media posts showed an image on the engine in September 2024.

Last November, Starbreeze says the Baxter project is still hiringas the game continues to work “full speed”. “Internally, we do weekly play tests of Baxter every week and have active discussions with many industry-leading players about potential collaborations for Baxter development and launch,” the studio said at the time. As of November 2024, Starbreeze has 191 employees, most of them based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Baxter's decision to cancel the project has reduced the development costs of Swedish company SEK 255 million (about US$272 million).

CEO Adolf Kristjansson called it a “difficult but necessary decision” but did not mention any specific issues in the development of the Baxter project that might be considered.

“Our strategy is clear: Payday is one of the most iconic IPs in the game with unparalleled coverage and potential,” Christianson said in a prepared statement. “By focusing our investments and talent here, we can accelerate delivery, attract players with more content, and enhance Starbreeze's position as a clear leader in the robbery genre. This is to promote our focus to create the greatest long-term value for our players, our people, our shareholders and our shareholders.”

“Parts” of the Baxter team will be redeployed in Starbreeze's project, mainly within paydays, but about 44 full-time employees of the staff and contractors will lose their jobs.

“We are shrinking the love a player, and what we do best – owning the genre of robbery,” Christinson continued. “Payday is more than just a game, it's a genre we create and continue to lead. By redeploying talent and capital, we can bring innovation to the robbery gameplay faster, while also laying the foundation for future genre expansion.”

Starbreeze said payday has more than 50 million players worldwide and has earned a lifetime total of nearly SEK 4 billion (about 427 million US dollars).

“As focus and resources increase, Starbreeze will accelerate its roadmap, providing more frequent updates, new content declines and ongoing real-time engagement,” the company said. “The discontinuation of Baxter, coupled with an increasing emphasis on payday franchise, will allow Starbreeze to become cash flow positive in 2026.”

Kristjansson added: “I would like to sincerely thank the Baxter team for their enthusiasm and creativity and express my gratitude to the Coast Wizard. Although we decided not to continue this project, we are proud of the achievements of Baxter, which will continue to work and provide our retailers with the best efforts to get the best paid.

So, what impact will StarBreeze have on the future? The 12-year-old Payday 2 is still much more than it did on Steam, but the developer insists Payday 3 is “developing into a scalable, real-time engagement platform to attract millions of players around the world.” The Payday 3 team will grow to about 50 employees by the end of the year, “and continue to align with the increase in player engagement.”

Meanwhile, Starbreeze said it also has new heist games in its work, including spin-offs and narrative-driven projects, and plans to expand paydays to new platforms. Meanwhile, it is providing services as a service for studio studios.

Wesley is IGN's news director. Find him on Twitter via @wyp100. You can reach Wesley via [email protected] or secretly visit [email protected].