Swedish game company Starbreeze Studios is the publisher behind survival horror game Dead By Daylight, as well as Overkill's The Walking Dead. It also developed tactical shooter Syndicate and co-op shooter Payday 2. While the company's roster of games may look quite strong, Starbreeze has gotten itself into some financial difficulties recently.

One of these financial crises is the fact that someone at Starbreeze has just been busted for insider trading. Swedish financial publication Dagens Industri reported that earlier today, Starbreeze's offices were raided by Swedish authorities. The Swedish Economic Crime Authority confirmed that one person has been arrested and detained, though it declined to identify the person. Swedish Economic Crime Authority officials were also seen carrying away computers from Starbreeze's Stockholm headquarters.

This is just the latest financial difficulty that Starbreeze has found itself facing lately. The studio had also filed for "reconstruction" with the Stockholm District Court which allows a company to figure out how to repay its debts. During this time, employees will still receive salaries and the company will not have to pay suppliers and vendors. It should allow business to go on as normal. Along with this, Starbreeze replaced its CEO after Bo Andersson stepped down from his position and left the company's board of directors.

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The reconstruction filing came as a direct result of the poor financial performance of Overkill's The Walking Dead. The survival action game had been delayed repeatedly, which didn't exactly help its chances of success. In fact, the PS4 and Xbox One version of the game has been delayed again and will not be released until early 2019.

The game also received poor reviews. Although the game had likable features on paper, including raids, reviews criticized Overkill's The Walking Dead for weak gameplay and it also has several technical issues. None of these will have helped the game's sales, nor will it have helped Starbreeze get its finances back on track.

The reconstruction should allow Starbreeze to carry on working on its current crop of projects, which includes Payday 3. But it's understandable if fans are now concerned about the future of the company and whether it will be able to make the necessary changes in order to become successful. The outcome of the insider trading investigation is also a concern but everyone will have to wait and see regarding Starbreeze's response.

Source: Dagens Industri (via Eurogamer)