Sweden’s Starbreeze invests $1.4M in mobile shooter game developer Cmune

Swedish game publisher Starbreeze announced tonight that it has invested $1.4 million in mobile shooter game specialist Cmune.

Cmune will take Starbreeze’s hit Payday online game series to mobile devices. That new game will be a licensed Payday experience that is tailored to mobile. With the success of other console ports like the space shoot-’em-up Geometry Wars 3 and adaptations like the turn-based shooter-turned-puzzler Hitman: Go, Cmune is hoping to find a different path to profits in the $30 billion game industry.

Starbreeze will continue to own the Payday intellectual property, and it will now hold a 6.3 percent stake in Cmune. That means that Cmune is valued at $22.2 million. Payday is a cooperative first-person shooter game that has 9 million players to date on the PC and consoles. 505 Games, Starbreeze’s publishing partner for the overall Payday franchise, will be the co-publisher of the mobile game.

Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint said in a statement that Cmune is a long-term partner and the company is pleased to become an investor. He is excited to see how Payday will evolve on new platforms with competitive play.

Cmune has made shooter games such as Uberstrike, with more than 25 million players on browser platforms. It also recently created Bullet Rush, and it is working on Deadheads, another shooter title for touch devices.

The company has studios in Hong Kong and Beijing and representation in San Francisco. Atomico and DCM Ventures are both investors Cmune, along with a dozen mobile and gaming industry veterans.

“We see a huge opportunity in the marriage of first class IP like Payday and mobile. There’s a market hungry for a fresh take on FPS in both the east and west, which we plan to capture.” said Ludovic Bodin, the CEO and cofounder of Cmune, in a statement.