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Starbreeze Smash And Grab PayDay Devs

I think it's more of a polite corporate takeover (IF SUCH A THING EXISTS) than a masked, gun-toting robbery, but the fact remains that Syndicate Riddick developer Starbreeze is awaiting shareholder approval as it bids to buy Overkill Software, they of PayDay: The Heist. If it all goes ahead, Overkill shall continue enhancements of the first game while also working on a sequel, which must feature supernatural elements and go by the name HeistGeist. Starbreeze have plenty in development already, with three internal teams working on three separate games, including "free-to-playish" Cold Mercury, the self-funded P13 and one other mystery title.

Cold Mercury aims to channel what the company learned while creating Syndicate's co-op mode, suggesting teamwork with the inevitable shooting. The use of "free-to-playish" to describe the game sets me up perfectly to say "all free-to-play is actually free-to-playish", while some things are simply "free".

P13 is being developed with the assistance of Swedish filmmaker Josef Fares, whose work I have hastily researched on Wikipedia. I expected a strong visual style, a predilection for adaptations of genre fiction or the Swedish equivalent of John Woo. Instead, I find that Josef is a young fellow who mostly makes comedies. Take Jalla! Jalla!:

Roro and Måns who are best friends, work at the park management and get to do all the shit jobs - clean up duck ponds and pick up dog poop.

Ho ho! Let's hope the game is based on a similar concept, eh?

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