Liquid Swords declared bankrupt by Stockholm court as Samson nets SEK 24.1 million

The Stockholm District Court declared Liquid Swords AB bankrupt on October 12, 2026. Employees petitioned the court after going unpaid for several months. Samson sold roughly 151,900 copies by October 14, 2026. Its net revenue of SEK 24.1 million trails the studio's 2024 loss of SEK 39.3 million. Trustee Cirio is selling the business or individual assets, with indicative bids due October 21.

Samson generated about SEK 24.1 million ($2.4 million) in aggregate net revenue.
That works out to roughly SEK 159 per unit across Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.
Liquid Swords lost about SEK 39.3 million ($4 million) in 2024 alone.
Lifetime game revenue therefore covered about 61% of a single prior year's loss.
Sundberg told GameSpot before launch that Samson was a make-or-break moment for the studio.

The studio announced layoffs in February 2025 and cut roughly half its workforce.
The cuts reduced a planned larger AAA project to a smaller self-published game.
Samson launched on PC in April 2026 to mixed reviews, with criticism centred on bugs.
Console versions followed in September, roughly a month before the bankruptcy order.
"Released a game with flaws for a number of reasons" - Christofer Sundberg, co-founder, Liquid Swords

Assets on offer include IP rights, source code, development material, domains, servers and equipment.
The estate keeps Samson operational and patched to preserve value for a going-concern sale.
NetEase, a minority shareholder, holds security over some of Samson's key assets.
Any buyer may need to resolve those claims before taking full control.
NetEase has given no indication it intends to bid, amid its overseas cost-cutting push.
Employment contracts for the 27 staff do not transfer to a buyer.
A buyer must sign new contracts with each employee to retain the team.

For Investors & VC: Add secured-lender liens on core IP and source code to minority-stake studio diligence.
For Publishers & Developers: Price any bid for the IP net of the cost to buy out the lender's security.
For Service Vendors: Pitch pre-launch QA and stabilization packages to single-title self-publishing studios before their PC release.