Starbreeze Studios has confirmed that Payday 3 is still not meeting expectations. The latest entry into the long-running co-op heist shooter franchise was released in September 2023, but Payday 3 quickly suffered a decline in player numbers thanks to a myriad of bugs and glitches found within the game.

Despite these issues at launch, steps have already been made by Starbreeze Studios to keep players engaged. The recently announced Payday 3 roadmap laid out plans to enhance the player experience with the cooperative heist game. This includes the creation of a dedicated team to manage the game’s overhaul along with more regular DLC. In the latest report to investors, the Swedish video game developer gives an honest picture of the current state of the game.

Following the latest earnings report from Starbreeze Studios, CEO Tobias Sjögren admitted that Payday 3 isn’t at the level the company was expecting. The player count remains low for the latest installment of the long-running heist franchise. However, the team is confident that it can entice gamers back to the fold. Sjögren went on to reinforce that the team at Strabreeze Studios will continue to develop improvements to the core experience of Payday 3 and highlighted that there were other examples of games that recovered from problematic launches.

As it stands, Payday 3 is one of the more negatively received games of recent times. On Steam, the game has a “Mostly Negative” rating, with 28,715 negative reviews logged by gamers. With the admission that the latest Payday isn’t where it needs to be, the Swedish developer has told fans to expect more information on both the long-term and short-term plans to revive the game by the end of February 2024.

While Payday 3 may be struggling to retain players, it seems that the well-established Payday 2 is seeing a boom in its player count. Starbreeze Studios reported that in one month during the last quarter, the decade-old game saw 400,000 active gamers logged into the servers, showing there is still a vested interest in the franchise as a whole.

It is not all bad news for fans of Payday 3. Despite the drop in player numbers, Payday 3 still drove revenue for Starbreeze Studios. As a result of this, the team remains committed to improving the game and introducing additional content. It remains to be seen what shape the future DLC will look like, but the next announcement on this is set to take place before the end of February 2024.

Posted: Feb 20, 2024 10:03 am
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Source: https://gamerant.com/payday-3-problems-player-decline-starbreeze-studios-comments/