Announced via a press release on the company's official website, Starbreeze has revealed it's signing a co-publishing deal with Koch Media to release the highly-anticipated Payday 3. The game will be making its way to PC and consoles in 2023, with the new deal between the two companies boosting the sequel's future marketing and global distribution efforts.

The deal will cost Koch Media over €50 million and will see them assist Starbreeze in working on the game both before and after its debut. Included in that promise is 18 months of post-launch content, with Starbreeze confirming that Payday 3 will be a "games as a service" experience that will be supported long after its initial release. The company has also clarified that it remains the sole owner of the Payday IP, meaning Koch Media won't bring the multiplayer bank-robbing series into its roster of franchises.

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"Payday 3 is shaping up to be an incredible game," said Koch Media CEO Klemens Kundratitz. It's "going to take the franchise to new heights and will delight Payday fans as well as new audiences alike with innovative multiplayer gameplay." Although the sequel has had a rough development cycle thus far, it seems fans can expect to see the franchise relaunch into the spotlight in just a few years' time, with the team finally having the funding to capitalize on its vision.

Alongside the news, the studio has also released a teaser image for the game, highlighting four obscured characters looking out over New York City. Although previous events in the Payday story suggest the series' original cast could be replaced this time around, one of the men is holding Dallas' iconic stars and stripes clown mask, indicating the gang could be making a grand return for the third installment. There are hardly any other significant hints in the shot, but it's an exciting indicator that Starbreeze is almost ready to get players back together for another set of adventures.

For those who haven't been following Payday 3's troubled production, the game has struggled frequently with financial issues since its announcement, with Starbreeze's problems beginning after the unsuccessful launch of its Walking Dead tie-in. It was later revealed that its CEO had been convicted of Insider Trading, capitalizing on the plummeting stocks of the business. Throughout all these issues, the company was insistent that it still aimed to develop and ship Payday 3 to its fans, and now, it seems it finally will in collaboration with Koch Media. The game definitely looks to be an ambitious sequel and one that Starbreeze confirms will be its next large-scale project as a team.

Payday 3 will launch on PC and consoles in 2023.

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Source: Starbreeze