Vice Plots Payday Movie and TV Projects as Part of New Partnership With Starbreeze

Vice Studios could soon assistance Chains, Dallas, Hoxton, and Wolf interruption into the movie and TV concern aft acquiring the movie and tv rights to the Payday franchise.

The institution down Gangs of London announced it was laying the groundwork to bring the fashionable video crippled franchise to a caller mean arsenic portion of a concern with Starbreeze Entertainment today. No details regarding however the brace volition construe co-op heist gameplay for caller audiences were revealed, suggesting it volition beryllium a portion earlier plans materialize.

“PAYDAY has a satellite that is bigger than the crippled itself,” president of Vice Amy Powell said successful a statement. “There’s mythology down the masks and a unit of characters with existent past that is incredibly breathtaking to explore. Partnering with Starbreeze Entertainment, we’re excited to physique that beingness and spot however acold it tin spell connected screen.”

Payday got an explosive commencement erstwhile its archetypal game, Payday: The Heist, launched for PlayStation 3 and PC successful 2011. Set astir 4 masked slope robbers, its gameplay tasked players with moving unneurotic to perpetrate crimes crossed antithetic scenarios arsenic rapidly and cleanly arsenic possible. Players showed up to enactment unneurotic plans and improvise erstwhile schemes fell apart, with its look yet expanded upon successful 2013’s Payday 2 and 2023’s Payday 3.

Former Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren, who exited the institution successful 2024 pursuing the disastrous motorboat of Payday 3, commented connected the anticipation of a imaginable Payday movie oregon amusement erstwhile speaking to GamesIndustry.biz backmost successful 2023. At the time, helium called it a “perfect fit,” teasing that specified a task could further research the inheritance for characters similar Chains, Dallas, Hoxton, and Wolf.

Sjögren's comments arrived conscionable months aft Starbreeze announced it had plans to make live-action movie and TV projects based connected Payday successful February 2023. The workplace said it had partnered with the Los Angeles-based Stockholm Syndrome astatine the time, but with the announcement of its caller concern with Vice today, it seems those plans apt fizzled out.

Although it’s presently unclear however future, non-game Payday stories volition play out, existent CEO Adolf Kristjansson offered his ain comments arsenic portion of today’s news: “Our extremity is to turn PAYDAY from a crippled into a afloat amusement platform, owning the heisting genre. PAYDAY is the cornerstone franchise for Starbreeze, and we’re highly selective astir partners who tin grow its beingness beyond games. VICE Studios is the cleanable spouse for this project, combining originative ambition with the accumulation capableness that feels authentic to PAYDAY.”

While Vice and Starbreeze enactment retired the adjacent steps for Payday to effort thing new, fans of the games are mostly inactive waiting for a caller introduction aft Payday 3 failed to impress. According to SteamDB, the 3rd mainline heist crippled has struggled to scope a concurrent subordinate number higher than 1,000 for the past 2 years. Despite launching astir 13 years ago, Payday 2’s existent 24-hour highest sits astatine 23,515.

While we hold for much Payday to travel together, you tin work our crippled reviews for Payday 1, 2, and 3. You tin besides work astir caller changes astatine Starbreeze that resulted successful layoffs and the cancellation of a co-op Dungeons & Dragons game.

Michael Cripe is simply a freelance writer with IGN. He's champion known for his enactment astatine sites similar The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be definite to springiness him a travel connected Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).