Starbreeze Studios

Background
Starbreeze Studios is a video game development studio and publisher, based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded by the members of the demogroup Triton, the company was merged with O3 Games in 2002 but the name Starbreeze was retained. The company's known for Payday 2, Enclave, Syndicate, The Darkness, and the Chronicles of Riddick games. In 2018, the company hit financial difficulties due to the failure of Overkill's The Walking Dead, but was able to survive through restructuring of the company.

(2004- )


Nicknames: "The Evil Sun Bacteria", "The Mad Scientist", "The Venipuncture Logo", "Smiling Bacteria"

Logo: On a white hospital room, we see the face of a mad doctor with a giant forehead. There's also some text near the bottom-left, "S82 MEDICAL RESEARCH FACILITY" and "PATIENT 27015" along with "REF: Y6BT8". We fade from white to a panning shot of medical tools. Then we fade into an anxious baby. Then there's a closeup of the mad scientist performing a venipuncture on the baby, as we see only the vacuum tube and the blood being filled on it. Then we cut of a transparent tube with blood moving inside it. There's then a brief shot of a bacteria being found on a sample, and the bottom-left text disappears. And then, another shot of the sample being examined through the microscope. Another cut shows the bacteria being found on the microscope, as one of them, which appears to have the shape of a sun, moves in to the center, from the bottom-left. The scientist then gets his eyes out of the microscope, as we see the sun bacteria again, which then fades into the logo, which is an abstract sun with the same shape of the bacteria, but with an evil smiling face on it. This logo is being surrounded by a circle. The logo moves vertically (like a old film) for a second and the words "STARBREEZE" and the spaced out "STUDIOS" seen below the underline, blurs in below the logo. The logo slightly zooms out.

Variants:
 * On The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, the logo is sped up a little.
 * A much shorter variant was spotted on Starbreeze Motion Capture from The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - Developer's Cut, which starts at the sun bacteria shot without the scientist cut.
 * A custom variant was shown on Syndicate (2012), where the logo (sans circle) is formed from particles merging diagonally. After rotating to face the screen, the logo dissolves and segues into the title screen.
 * A still variant exists.

FX/SFX: Live-action was used in this logo, as well as some CGI effects for the bacteria.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic fanfare that builds up into a climax with an abrupt stop. Then, we hear a final note.

Music/Sounds Variant: The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena used a different dramatic theme.

Availability: Can be seen on both The Chronicles of Riddick games: Escape from Butcher Bay for the Xbox and PC, The Darkness, and Assault on Dark Athena for the Xbox 360, PS4 and PC. The still variant appears on Payday 2 and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.

Legacy: This logo has disturbed a few because of its creepy mad scientist subject matter. Others find this logo cool, however.