Brothers Bo and Ulf Andersson had founded Grin in 1997, which had some successful titles including Bionic Commando.

The Anderssons launched Overkill Software that same year after Grin gets shut down due to bankruptcy, with their first project being Payday: The Heist, released in 2011.

[2] The net result gave Overkill the necessary funding to complete Payday 2, which was released in 2013, along with Starbreeze's Brothers, with publishing support from 505 Games.

Ulf Andersson, the chief creative director on Payday 2, reportedly had been burned out by its development, and had not shown up to work for several months, according to those close to Overkill.

[7] Ulf Andersson went on to form the 10 Chambers Collective, which is working on GTFO, a science fiction game that borrows from some of Payday's concepts.

The console versions were put on hold, and in the months that followed, Bo Andersson was let go as Starbreeze's CEO and later was investigated by the Swedish Economic Crime Authority for insider trading but ultimately cleared of wrongdoing.

[10] On 18 August 2015, sound designer and composer Simon Viklund left Overkill to focus on his solo music project.