Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren has left the studio as the company looks for “different leadership.”
In a press release shared online on March 12 (via Game Developer), the Payday 3 The developer announced that after three years as CEO, Tobias Sjögren will leave office. Board member Juergen Goeldner will take on the interim role of CEO while the company searches for a permanent solution.
“The company has a clear strategy focused on creating compelling proprietary and licensed IP games,” said Torgny Hellström, President of Starbreeze. “The board's consolidated assessment is that the execution of the strategy needs different leadership. Juergen Goeldner has been on the board since 2023 and, with more than 40 years of experience in the sector, is a solid interim solution.”
Starbreeze notes that Sjögren will be available at the studio for a smooth transition and thanked the now-former CEO for his work over the past three years.
“Tobias took the helm of Starbreeze at a challenging phase of his journey and we wish him the best in his future endeavors,” Hellström continues.
Goeldner also shared a statement saying that after the release Payday 3 “The company is well positioned to leverage the organization's strengths to monetize and develop the intellectual property portfolio” and “looks forward to taking an operational position and, together with management, ensuring the execution of this strategy.”
Although Payday 3 wasn't mentioned in relation to Sjögren's departure, it's hard not to correlate the two, considering the game's disastrous launch just six months ago.
Payday 3 It launched in September and ran into server instability issues and matchmaking issues on all platforms. The problems were so bad that the game had to be temporarily taken offline to fix it. After weeks of waiting for the first major update, some issues still persisted, and it wasn't until November that Starbreeze addressed the concerns and shared its plans for the game in the future.
Last month, Sjögren finally shared a statement on the game's situation, revealing that although the game's sales and player activity “are currently at significantly lower levels than we would like,” his “absolute priority” is make sure it “lives up to expectations.” “
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