Starbreeze Studio Raided by Police

So two days ago we got the news that Starbreeze was filing for “Reconstruction”, and their CEO was stepping down, after Overkill’s The Walking Dead underperformed in sales. Even at the time that seemed like a fairly dramatic reaction to a game not selling great, but we had no reason to suspect there was anything else going on behind the scenes. No reason, that is, until now: because as it turns out, it was just confirmedd that Starbreeze’s Stockholm office was recently raided by Swedish authorities who were investigating claims of insider trading.

Starbreeze admitted to the raid in a statement sent to GamesIndustry.biz:
 

"On Wednesday Swedish Economic Crime Authority has conducted a search query at Starbreeze AB. The company has been informed that this has occurred due to suspicions of insider charges. The company as such is not subject to any suspicion. The company cooperates full [sic] with the Swedish Economic Crime Authority. The event does not affect the company or the ongoing business reconstruction."

The Swedish authorities, on the other hand, said that one person had been arrested (and their office stuff seized) as a result of this raid. Clearly, something is going down at Starbreeze, and we’re only getting a small picture of it.

Obviously, we have no way of knowing if any more crimes, raids, or other dramatic events will rock the studio while they’re in the middle of their reconstruction period, but this might have some pretty big impacts on the games they’re making and are currently trying to support. Starebreeze will have to cooperate with authorities with these charges (especially if it was against an executive, which seems likely), and in the middle of that investigation, find someone who’s willing to be CEO of this increasingly warped train wreck. Not a job I would envy right now.

We’re still a few events short of calling this a crisis. But we’re getting closer.