Payday 3 launched last week across consoles and PCs, and it hasn’t been without some bumps along the way. The sequel to the 2013 game Payday 2 was highly anticipated and upon launch drew many fans. Sadly, its launch was not smooth sailing – the irony of this is that the game’s popularity had a hand in its issues, leading to overlong queues, which even solo players had to wait in.
Upon launch, the game experienced a widespread server problem because of the large number of would-be players. Apart from that, the game’s matchmaking algorithms also experienced issues that further dampened spirits during its launch.
Payday 3 was exclusively designed as an online game. If a player decides to settle for a solo run and forgo the multiplayer mode, they would still experience the same issues since they can’t play the title offline. Because of this, many fans have asked Starbreeze Studios to release an offline mode for the title
Annoyed fans have used every avenue they can to voice their displeasure, including Steam, where an overwhelming number of players have given it a negative review. Tobias Sjögren, who heads the studio behind the game, apologized for the issues soon after and confirmed they are listening to fans and are looking at the possibility of an offline mode.
He said, “We are disappointed in the issues our player base has faced during our launch weekend, but we are confident in our core product and the quality of Payday 3—and all available metrics point to it. We have a lot of diligent and consistent work ahead of us to regain community trust, but we will work hard to do it.”
Apart from Sjögren, two other Starbreeze personnel have addressed the launch issue. A few days ago, the studio’s global brand director Almir Listo and its lead producer Andreas Häll Penninger took to a Twitch stream to apologize to fans and answer their questions about the situation.
Listo and Penninger explained that the studio’s server couldn’t handle the massive number of players who tried to sign in, hence, the outages. They promised the development team is “evaluating all options” to resolve these problems and ensure players can have a smooth experience.
Even though they admitted that an offline solo mode is one of the options they are looking at, it was evident they are hesitant about it. Listo explained that the always-online system was designed to foster “one Payday community across all platforms” as well as eliminate cheating and unreliable hosting as was the case with Payday 2.
The servers have now been stable for 48 hours! We're still going ahead with tomorrow's maintenance to ensure continued performance.
We are also currently investigating the challenge services, as we're seeing a delay of a few minutes before unlocks are awarded. https://t.co/D7tKtB2qGW
— PAYDAY 3 (@PAYDAYGame) September 28, 2023
Given the problems the game has faced, we doubt they have much of a choice in the matter. Even though the servers are now reportedly stable, they still has some issues. Unless they can find a lasting solution to the problems plaguing the game, we think developing an offline solo mode is a great idea and one they should definitely entertain.
Penninger also promised that they are working on improving the game using the feedback they’ve received from players. Based on his words, we can expect Starbreeze to make updates related to Quickplay; Mute button; Voice and text chat in the lobby; Mouse and keyboard support on consoles; Rename load-outs; Ready button in the lobby, and more, over the coming weeks.
Payday 3 is out now.
