Starbreeze Studios, parent company of Payday developer Overkill, today announced it had acquired the Payday franchise rights from publisher 505 Games.

The deal involved Starbreeze purchasing around US$30 million in 505 stock, while guaranteeing 505 a third of after-cost revenue from sales of the next Payday game, up to US$40 million.

Future games in the online heist series will be owned by Starbreeze in their entirety, while Payday 2 console sales will be split between the two companies.

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The Payday 2 PC community is outraged that balance-altering microtransactions have been ushered in with the heist title’s latest update.

The game’s Black Market update lets players pay real-world money to crack open safes and get random loot, including stat-boosting weapon skins.

Skins can be resold or traded among players.

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WTF is Payday? Rob banks. Rob jewelry stores. Rob museums. Get paid!

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Payday 2: Crimewave Edition is coming to new-gen consoles in June, and will include almost all the game’s DLC to date.

More than a dozen pieces of DLC have been released for the robbery FPS, and they've added weapons, heists, and new mechanics to the game.

Crimewave Edition will run at a resolution of 1080p.

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Bombs away! January 22. New contact: The Butcher New heist: The Bomb New crew member: Dragan

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Time to Shine. December 16. New heist: The Diamond. New crew member: Clover.

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Check out this new teaser trailer for Payday 2: Hotline Miami DLC.

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505 Games has announced that Giancarlo Esposito will star as a new character called "The Dentist" in PayDay 2's next downloadable content pack, The Big Bank Heist.

Esposito is known the world over for his portrayal of the unassuming drug baron Gustavo Fring in the hit TV drama Breaking Bad.

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Giancarlo Esposito stars as a new character called "The Dentist" in PayDay 2's next downloadable content pack, The Big Bank Heist.

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The Death Wish update is the second late-game update for Payday 2. It allows players to explore the new Death Wish difficulty, introduces two new enemy types, four new masks and a whopping 35 new achievements to unlock.

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Payday 2’s first DLC, Armored Transport Heists, is available now on PC.

The US$6.99 expansion adds five armoured car and train heists to the four-player co-op first-person shooter, along with three new weapons, four new president masks (Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama), four new mask patterns, and four new mask materials.

Provided the host of a game owns the DLC, anyone can play. However, those who don't own it won't get the new gear.

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The Armored Transport features all-new armored car and train heists, playable across five existing maps, as well as three new weapons, four U.S. president masks (Nixon, Clinton, Bush and Obama), four new mask patterns, four new mask materials and more.

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[i]Payday 2[/i]'s singleplayer isn't worth consideration, but a few bugbears aside, its multiplayer is a tense, frequently exhilarating experience. Its challenging levels are best approached with crime-minded friends, and randomised elements (along with the promise of five DLC packs) will keep players in the game well after that one final score.

If heist films have taught us anything, it’s that crime has its low-level knuckleheads, but also its consummate professionals. Any idiot can put on a balaclava and rob a dairy (unfortunately), but there’s a certain suave mystique to be found in the snappy-two piece suits and ticking stopwatches at the other end of the scale.

Co-op shooter Payday 2 is happy to leave mugging passers-by for a few bucks to small-timers like Niko Belic; instead it puts up to four players in the shoes of an experienced, no-nonsense and hard-hitting team of professional thieves as they pursue their chosen vocations by executing various big-end crimes around the city of Washington DC.

Arriving in the capital after their exploits in the first game, the Payday crew of Wolf, Chains, Dallas, and Hoxton are set up with a safe house and then quickly get down to doing what they do best: relieving people of their valuables. Missions take the form of straight cash robberies from the likes of banks, jewellery stores, and nightclubs, but sometimes the crew are called upon to relieve rival gangsters of their weapons, safeguard a shipment of drugs from the Feds, or even break into an FBI building.

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Watch as the cops close in on the infamous Payday crew.

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A year of downloadable content is planned for Payday 2, and will hopefully include a playable female character, says Overkill’s David Goldfarb.

Speaking with OXM, Goldfarb – who was game director on the heist first-person shooter – said that a female character wouldn’t be included in the first DLC offering, but nonetheless was high on his list of priorities.

"I'm hoping – I don't know if we'll get it as our first DLC, because we'd have to redo all the animations so it doesn't look like a dude walking around with a female body," said Goldfarb.

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Starbreeze is looking to develop new IP using the proceeds from Payday 2, which has turned a profit for the company on the strength of pre-orders alone.

According to an investor note translated from Swedish by Game Reactor, Payday 2 publisher 505 Games has been completely reimbursed for its investment in the title, six days before its official release.

All revenue from the game’s sales will now be split between 505 and Starbreeze.

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David Goldfarb, game director of Payday 2, discusses in-game dynamics, and how they keep every heist a unique experience.

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Payday 2 will be available for Windows PC on August 14, developer Overkill has announced.

The release of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions is expected to follow shortly thereafter; sometime between August 14 and 17.

Payday 2 is a co-operative first-person shooter that tasks up to four players with carrying out more than 30 heists in a stealthy or full-noise fashion on the streets of Washington DC.

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David Goldfarb The game Director of Payday 2 takes us into the Safehouse, the aspiring criminal's sanctuary, where you will be able to hone the skills that will keep a good heist from going bad.

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Pick skills within classes to become a mastermind, an enforcer, a ghost, or a technician.

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As episode 3 of Payday The Web Series begins, the FBI start to suspect there might be a connection between the Payday Crew and a much larger threat and we meet two colourful new cogs in the Crime.net machine – Hector and Lucas – who will go to any means to get what they want. Will there soon be pounding on Bain’s front door? Or does the master of information have his ear to the ground?

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David Goldfarb, Game Director of PAYDAY2, walks us through the shady world of CRIMENET, the dynamic contract database that lets gamers pick and choose from available jobs by connecting with local contacts such as Vlad the Ukrainian, shady politician "The Elephant" and Mexican drug trafficker Hector, all with their own agenda and best interests in mind. CRIMENET features dozens of varied, exciting jobs and as the player progresses, new contacts with new jobs become available.

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Payday 2 is aiming to be the Dark Souls of the heist genre, says developer Overkill Software.

Speaking with Polygon, Payday 2 creative director David Goldfarb said that the usual tenets of the sequel – more levels and gentle expansion – went out the window early.

"It was a very sensible plan," said Goldfarb. "But I didn't want to do that."

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Game Director David Goldfarb explains what makes Payday 2 different from the original Payday, and other shooters out there.

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