Christofer Sundberg, founder of Liquid Swords and co-founder of Avalanche Studios, isn't trying to go toe-to-toe with Rockstar. Speaking to PC Gamer, the creator of the Just Cause series laid out exactly where he sees his new open-world crime brawler Samson fitting into the market , and it's not as a Grand Theft Auto killer.
Not a competitor, a companion
The GTA comparisons were always going to happen. Samson is an open-world crime game set in a city, following a low-level criminal working his way up. Sundberg's team has acknowledged the similarities before , mission designer Donald Young told PC Gamer earlier this year that the comparison "makes sense, just because it's an open world city game." But Sundberg's framing goes further than deflection.
"Grand Theft Auto has always been a phenomenon," Sundberg said. "It competes with everything in entertainment. Every time a GTA game releases, it's just Christmas for everyone. It's like when a new iPhone releases. It's something that so many want, that don't even play videogames."
He's not wrong. GTA V has sold over 200 million copies. The franchise sits in a category essentially by itself.
The 90-minute action movie argument
Here's the thing: Sundberg's pitch for Samson isn't scale. It's pacing. He drew a comparison to classic action cinema, describing Samson as the kind of game you reach for when a sprawling open-world epic feels like too much commitment.
"There are times when you want to put GTA down and pick up something else," Sundberg said. "I see Samson as being like back in the day when action movies were 90 minutes long, not over two hours. I keep on going back to watching Die Hard and Ronin and First Blood and Rambo. I think there's a space for us there, and that's where I want to end up."
The analogy lands even if the specific runtime facts are slightly off (both Die Hard and Ronin clock in over two hours). The spirit of it is clear: Samson is aiming for lean, punchy, and unpretentious. A crime game you can finish without blocking out three months of your life.
A rougher road to launch
The road to April 8 hasn't been smooth. Samson was originally scoped as a significantly larger project, but Liquid Swords laid off roughly half its team in 2025, forcing a mid-development rethink. Sundberg has since said that the changes actually pushed the game toward something more distinct, even if the process was painful.
A 2025 video clip of Samson drew immediate comparisons to GTA IV specifically, which Sundberg took as a compliment rather than a slight. The goal was never to replicate Rockstar's scale, which he described as "impossible," but to carve out a tone and feel that sits alongside GTA 6 rather than pretending to replace it.
What this means for players
With GTA 6 release details still dominating conversation, Samson is making a smart bet. The open-world crime genre has room for more than one entry, and a $25 price point removes a lot of the friction that would otherwise make players hesitant to try something new.
Whether Sundberg's vision of Samson as the Die Hard to Rockstar's Oppenheimer actually plays out depends entirely on the game itself. The April 8 launch will answer that question quickly. Make sure to check out more:
