Starbreeze apologizes following last-minute delay to stability-focused Payday 3 patch

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.