The CEO of Starbreeze has apologised for the problems that plagued Payday 3 at launch, pledging that the team will “work tirelessly” to ensure a stable experience across all versions.
“We are so sorry that the infrastructure didn’t hold up as expected, and although it’s impossible to prepare for every scenario – we should be able to do better,” Tobias Sjögren wrote in a post to X (previously Twitter). “We work tirelessly until we have restored all services and our players can get back to heisting again without issues!”
In the Xbox Series versions of Payday 3, issues like sporadic server connection and crashes continually booted players out of the game over the weekend.
PC players took to Reddit to complain about endless matchmaking and it transpired that PS5 players were originally playing an older build of Payday 3 rather than the most recent one.
“What an absolute nightmare of a launch to ruin a [game’s] reputation that was beloved by the community for years,” announced a fan.
While there were likely a number of complicating factors for the game’s launch, the blame landed on Payday 3‘s always-online feature which was slammed by fans back in July.
This is in order to facilitate cross-play and cross-progression, according to Starbreeze global brand director Almir Listo. Neither Payday or Payday 2 required the player to have an active Internet connection, though.
In NME‘s review of the game, praise was paid to the structure of the levels and the pulse-pounding combat in encounters with the police. Yet, there was a pervasive feeling of a missed opportunity when Payday 2 made so many leaps forward for the series.
“Payday 3‘s biggest crime is that there’s very little crime, as you can complete every level in four to five hours. Though you’re encouraged to repeat each one to complete challenges, there’s little incentive to do so,” the review reads.
In other gaming news, the next Star Wars Jedi game is in the works according to actor Cameron Monaghan, who played protagonist Cal Kestis.