Starbreeze announced a major overhaul of Payday 3 today including changes to progression, matchmaking, the UI, and the always-on requirement.
In case there was any doubt, Starbreeze is not happy with how things are working out for Payday 3, the much-troubled heist-shooter that launched in September 2023. In its year-end financial report for 2023, CEO Tobias Sjögren said sales and player numbers are «at significantly lower levels than we would like,» but it’s not giving up on efforts to turn things around.
Payday 3 ran headlong into technical troubles with its servers when it went live, which was a major problem: Players are forced to be online even when they’re playing by themselves, so issues with servers meant that even solo players were forced to wait in long queues to play the game. The situation got worse as the first patch was repeatedly delayed, ultimately not arriving until more than a month after the release of the game. But that didn’t put the problems to rest, as players were also less than thrilled with the state of the game when it did work.
The net result was predictable: A «mixed» rating on Steam (with no sign of an upturn anytime soon—recent reviews have been «mostly negative») and a tiny player count that’s currently sitting at just 249. That’s not a healthy situation for any game, let alone one that relies on a large player base for microtransaction sales.
So, Sjögren’s comments are hardly a bolt from the blue. «Payday 3’s sales and player activity are currently at significantly lower levels than we would like,» he said. «Our biggest focus and absolute priority, both during and after the quarter, are the efforts needed to ensure that the game lives up to expectations.
