We don’t know if we have to praise Starbreeze Studios or to criticize them. On one hand, the studio seems to be doing all it can to deliver on all its earlier promises for Payday 3. The only problem is that falling short seems to be the norm for them.
Shortly after launching with the much-criticized always-online feature, this backfired on Payday 3 almost immediately as it resulted in server issues, increased calls for an offline mode, and overall madness as the studio had to spend the next few weeks fixing Payday 3.
Now, Payday 3 is mostly fixed. It doesn’t run as smoothly as it should, but it’s in a much better state than when it was at launch. It still has plenty of room of improvement though, which isn’t coming anytime soon.
Heisters. We're extremely sorry for this, but we've chosen to delay today's planned patch to ensure its stability. The patch needs some changes that would require us to go through console certification again. We hope to be ready to deliver this one for mid-October.
— PAYDAY 3 (@PAYDAYGame) October 5, 2023
As revealed on its official X account, Payday 3’s planned early October patch is delayed until the middle of the month so that Starbreeze can “ensure its stability.” It adds that the patch requires the studio to “go through console certification again.
As if that wasn’t enough, Starbreeze is delaying the bonus PS5 content until the patch is online and it will have to do a bit “more server maintenance” between “8am-11 am CEST on the 6th and 10th of October.”
While you can’t help but appreciate the proactive approach, these are problems that Starbreeze should’ve seen coming already ahead of the game’s release. It’s not like Payday 3 was flooded by players when it came out last month. If we’re being honest, the response was likely in line with expectations, peaking at 77,938 players on Steam alone. As of the time of writing, anywhere between a little over 6,000 and nearly 14,000 players are playing Payday 3 on the same platform. It’s not a small amount but, as one astute “heister” pointed out, patience within the community is running thin.
After holding multiple playtests and stress tests, you’d expect Payday 3 to be running smoothly at launch or at least a few days later – not a month after coming out.
Starbreeze is good for the money. It supported Payday 2 for the better part of the past decade. We’re expecting Payday 3 to survive just fine. It has grander plans for the game, including the addition of an offline mode down the line and migration to Unreal Engine 5 to improve the game’s graphics and performances. Things will inevitably get better for Payday 3. The only question is, if players will stick around until then to find out if it’s worth it or not.
Hopefully, Starbreeze can strike the perfect balance between quality updates and bringing them in time so it can keep players satisfied.
The live-service waters is tricky to navigate. For every successful game like Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Apex Legends, a dozen others have either sunk or are barely staying afloat. Companies like Sony and Blizzard Entertainment are finding out just how difficult it is for a live-service game to succeed in this day and age.
As we stare down the imminent implosion of the live-service bubble, we’re curious to find out what kind of trend will follow in the gaming industry.
