 Starbreeze then partnered with Electronic Arts for two different games, one was known as Project Redlime, while the other was an action-adventure video game set within the Bourne universe. The Bourne game was cancelled as a direct result of Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass not participating in the fourth Bourne film. Project Redlime had a larger scale than the Bourne game. It was said to be a reinvention of one of Electronic Arts'franchises. The company shifted from a technology-orientated company to focus more on the core gameplay mechanics of their new project. Syndicate was announced in September 2011. The game suffered from a troubled development, with Starbreeze completely reworking the game one year after its initial development. There were also many creative differences between the developer and the publisher, and the two companies suffered from an inharmonious relationship. During the game's development, seven senior members of the company, including Högdahl, left to form their own smaller studio. Some of them formed MachineGames to work on their own original games. With a budget that was less than other typical AAA video games, Syndicate received average reviews and was a commercial failure. Grefberg left the company after the game's completion, and 25 employees were laid off.
