Payday 2 publisher Starbreeze has appointed former Ubisoft executive producer Stéphane Decroix as its new chief development officer.

He joins the executive management team at the company and will be responsible for all internal projects, including The Walking Dead, Crossfire, the Payday franchise and Geminose.

Decroix joins Starbreeze after 20 years with the French company, working on titles such as Watch Dogs 1 and 2.

Big budget experience

“I’m very pleased to welcome Stéphane to Starbreeze.” said Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint.

“To continue growing our company, we implemented the position of CDO and Stéphane will be complementing our existing management in the leadership of our game development.

“Stéphane will head all of our internal development projects under Starbreeze Studios and will further strengthen the focus of our core business. He has solid experience from game development in building and organising huge teams.

“Most recently he was leading the strategic vision and development of the Watch Dogs brand, one of the fastest selling new IPs in the industry, and spearheading games with development budgets over $100 million and teams of more than 600 people.”

Starbreeze has an extensive lineup of games in the pipeline right now, including Project Crossfire and Payday 3.It also has a mobile title, Payday Crime War, due for release this year.

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