Swedish outfit Starbreeze have struck a deal with Korean games giant Smilegate that’s worth a few quid indeed. The multi-million dollar trade will see the former develop a first-person co-op shooter based on the latter’s mega popular free-to-play Crossfire. It’ll also see Payday 2 and Overkill’s upcoming The Walking Dead repackaged for eastern markets.
Perhaps Crossfire will one day make our list of best first-person shooters.
Crossfire, you may or may not know, is probably the most popular first-person shooter in the world boasting six million concurrent players, with a grand total of 500 million players overall. According to the blurb on the Starbreeze website, it’s made a fair wad of cash over the years too – accruing more than $1.3 billion during 2014 alone, much of which came from Chinese players.
Starbreeze – they of 2012’s Syndicate reboot – own Payday 2 devs Overkill, thus the deal will also bring Overkill’s forthcoming The Walking Dead – as well as their popular bank robber ‘em up – to Asian markets.
How exactly will Starbreeze interpret Smilegate’s mega hit? That remains to be seen, but the $40 million deal has been granted on the grounds that the Swedes create and publish a new first-person co-op variation at some point in the next ten years using Starbreeze’s in-house Valhalla engine.
“The Eastern entertainment market has been an enigma for western game developers and vice versa,” says Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint in a statement. “This in-depth collaboration uniquely positions Starbreeze and Smilegate to bridge the gap between the two markets.
“I am genuinely excited to have the opportunity to work together with the successful, agile and smart team at Smilegate. We will create a powerhouse of a partnership for the next decade.”