Payday Publisher Starbreeze Cancels Its Dungeons & Dragons Video Game, Lays Off Staff

By Farouk Kannout | October 2, 2025 | 12:30pm

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Payday Publisher Starbreeze Cancels Its Dungeons & Dragons Video Game, Lays Off Staff

Starbreeze Entertainment, the company known for the Payday franchise, has canceled a Dungeons and Dragons project in an effort to refocus resources on the Payday franchise itself. Part of the team behind the D&D project, codenamed Project Baxter, is planned to be redeployed across other Starbreeze projects, while another estimated 44 full time employees and contractors will be hit with layoffs.

Project Baxter was planned to be an officially licensed D&D game, originally revealed in 2023 and slated for a 2026 release. The project was described as “a co-op urban crawl through a reactive Dungeons & Dragons-world, utilizing procedural tools to enhance emergent gameplay in an endlessly replayable setting.”

“This was a difficult but necessary decision,” said current CEO Adolf Kristjansson in an official announcement. “Our strategy is clear: PAYDAY is one of the most iconic IPs in gaming, with unmatched reach and potential. By focusing our investment and talent here, we can accelerate delivery, engage players with more content, and reinforce Starbreeze’s position as the clear leader in the heisting genre. This is about sharpening our focus to create the strongest long-term value for our players, our people, and our shareholders.”

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Kristjansson was appointed CEO at Starbreeze in April of 2025, following Tobias Sjögren being ousted more than a year earlier due to Payday 3’s poor launch. In a note to investors when he was appointed, Kristjansson said, “I join Starbreeze with great enthusiasm for the company’s current and future projects, not the least the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons title. I look forward to continuing the work of expanding the Payday franchise further and building Starbreeze into a true multi-title studio.”

Starbreeze plans to present its updated strategy soon, detailing a renewed focus on the Payday franchise. Kristjansson concluded his statement, saying: “I want to sincerely thank the Baxter team for their passion and creativity, and express appreciation to Wizards of the Coast for their support. Though we have made the decision to not continue forward with this project, we are proud of what was achieved in Baxter, and those contributions will carry forward into PAYDAY and the future of Starbreeze. By concentrating our efforts on PAYDAY we give Starbreeze and all our employees the best chance to succeed.”

Payday 3 was released in 2023 to poor sales and mixed reviews, with a recorded full year loss of $18.5 million for the studio by the end of 2024.