LogInAlthough it's currently trendy within the gaming community to dislike companies like Nintendo for raising prices on Nintendo Switch 2 games, or Ubisoft for reasons too numerous to list in this foreword, the studio that is the most disliked by its own employees appears to be Starbreeze – the developer behind the PAYDAY franchise – which has stayed on our radar since January for quietly laying off 15% of its workforce and shutting down its entire French entity, without publicly disclosing either move.
Starbreeze
Over the past few days, several Starbreeze employees, including laid-off members of the French team, have contacted 80 Level to call out Mats Juhl – the former interim CEO of Starbreeze, replaced last week by Adolf Kristjansson – for lying in an official document to avoid reimbursing the terminated French employees, and for attempting to gaslight them afterward.
In this edition of what, unfortunately, seems to have become our regular "Starbreeze shenanigans" report, let's unpack what's going on inside the studio, the status of Project Baxter, the reasons why the Paris-based branch was eliminated in the first place, and why frustrated workers are now straight up accusing Juhl of having his pants on fire. Please note that today's story is related to the closure of the French division, so if you haven't heard about it yet, I highly recommend checking out our previous reports on the matter to get the full context.
According to several sources, the French employees recently received an official letter personally signed by Juhl, which you can read below:
When translated into English, the letter states that the French employees, all of whom were working remotely, will not receive compensation for remote work. The reason given by the ex-CEO for the lack of "teletravail reimbursements" was that the French office – the actual building, that is – was closed due to COVID, and after pandemic-related restrictions were lifted, the developers themselves expressed the desire to continue working remotely. As a result, under case law Cass. soc. July 8, 2010, no. 08-45.287, the company claims it is not required to reimburse any expenses.
This is where it gets interesting. Although COVID-19 has "19" in its name, its outbreak occurred in December 2019, and it only became a global event in early 2020. However, according to our sources, the Paris office actually closed on April 19, 2019 – well before the first case was reported and the global hysteria over the virus reached France. As one former Starbreeze employee shared with 80 Level, the "cancellation of rental agreements" referenced in the studio's Q1 2019 financial statement almost certainly relates to the closure of the Paris office.
Upon receiving this letter, Starbreeze employees, with firsthand knowledge of the exact date the office was closed, accused Juhl of lying and gaslighting them into believing false information, finding the use of an apparent lie to justify withholding reimbursements they are legally obligated to pay and that the former CEO was "willing to lie in writing about something that can be so easily fact-checked" particularly offensive.
In response, one employee submitted a report via the Starbreeze whistleblowing channel, a system compliant with the EU whistleblower directive, which developers can use to report concerns anonymously. Below is the full text of this report, which highlights not only Juhl's alleged dishonesty but also the overall atmosphere within the company and the growing distrust between regular developers and management at Starbreeze:
"I have worked at Starbreeze for a long time. I’ve stayed through difficult times, but recent developments have left me deeply disturbed, and I feel I have no choice but to raise this. I have just learned that Mats Juhl, as interim CEO, lied to the French employees in an official communication, a letter sent with the Starbreeze logo, company branding, and his signature.
In it, he stated that the closure of the Paris office was caused by an order from the French government because of COVID-19. That is simply false! It wasn’t a miscommunication. It wasn’t a misunderstanding. It was a lie. And to make matters worse, I’ve been told this has been explained to Mats multiple times, and yet no apology or correction has ever been made.
This crosses a line I can’t accept. If Mats is willing to lie in writing about something that can be so easily fact-checked, what else has he been dishonest about? Has he lied to current employees, too? Has he lied to the board? To partners? To investors? How many of our internal updates can we actually trust? How much of what was said to reassure the staff or justify decisions is even remotely grounded in reality?
I am writing this because I am angry, disillusioned, and embarrassed. We’ve lost good people. We’ve lost trust. And Mats Juhl is the face of this disaster. His leadership has been marked by gaslighting, censorship, and silence, and now, we have a clear case of deliberate dishonesty in formal communication. This isn’t just bad management. This is a betrayal of Starbreeze’s integrity.
I formally request: 1 - a full internal audit of ALL official communications issued by Mats Juhl during his time as interim CEO; 2 - that any discovered misrepresentations be corrected; 3 - and that a statement be made to employees, acknowledging this serious breach of trust. Every day we stay silent about this, we drift further from the culture of transparency and accountability that Starbreeze claims to uphold. We cannot rebuild trust if the people responsible for destroying it face no accountability. Sincerely, a deeply disappointed employee."
On their end, Starbreeze's Whistleblowing team simply closed the case without addressing any of the issues raised in it. Here's the response the employee received:
"Dear Whistleblower, the information you have provided in your messages contains several discrepancies. Firstly, there are no legal counselor employed at Starbreeze except the General Counsel. If you are acting as a representative of an employee, please note that the whistleblowing function is not intended for legal correspondence or advocacy. Secondly, the requests outlined in your latest message do not align with those from your original communication.
This inconsistency, combined with the nature of the submissions, gives us substantial reason to believe the report may not have been made in good faith and could be intentionally misleading. Furthermore, we have determined that the matter falls outside the material scope of Article 1 of the EU Whistleblower Directive. Given these considerations, we will be closing this matter. We wish to remind all users that the whistleblowing channel exists to provide a secure and trustworthy mechanism for raising serious concerns in good faith."
Afterward, the employee submitted at least three additional requests to reopen the case, all of which were blocked by the Whistleblowing team. To access any report in the whistleblowing channel, a case number and verification code are required – both of which were provided to the 80 Level team as evidence. Our source has allowed us to share the case numbers, which are 94023650, 87625113, 51173133, and 04764778, but, sadly, not the verification codes because they can "expose the identity of the person who submitted the whistleblowing report."
On that note, the original version of this report was supposed to end. However, mere hours before the publication, we received some additional details regarding the shutdown of Starbreeze's French branch.
While it's an open secret that the majority of the layoffs affecting the game development industry in recent years are financially driven, executives rarely acknowledge this directly. Instead, they prefer to issue long-winded statements about "restructurings," "difficult decisions," "talented team members," and so on, hiding the simple truth – "we fired them because we don't have enough money" – behind paragraphs upon paragraphs of PR-approved language.
Behind closed doors, however, CEOs, CFOs, and other Cs are still people and speak about issues bluntly and as-is. And in Starbreeze's January 10, 2025, All-Hands Meeting presentation, those doors were opened when company executives accidentally forgot to delete Speaker Notes, which essentially admit that 23 French developers were laid off or are set to be laid off because of money.
According to the notes, the job cuts occurred primarily because the costs of maintaining a corporation in France are too high – the staff costs are greater than in Sweden, and the administrative expenses to operate the French subsidiary are steep. Additionally, the notes reveal that executives explored other solutions to retain jobs in France, such as through a third-party company, but limitations in French labor law made it very challenging. Unfortunately, at the request of our insider, we are unable to share the entire presentation here. However, here is a screenshot of the Speaker Notes in question:
Additionally, the same set of notes offers a rare glimpse into Project Baxter, indicating that Starbreeze plans to find both an external publisher and distributor for the Dungeons & Dragons-based title they are developing in partnership with Wizards of the Coast:
As always, 80 Level has contacted the Starbreeze team directly to clarify the points raised in the article. We'll provide an update in the event of the studio responding.
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