To say the launch of Payday 3 was bad would be an understatement. The game released with so many problems that Starbreeze CEO had to publicly apologize. Things only got worse at the time as updates to fix player concerns were regularly delayed.
Now, over a year since its release, Starbreeze once again admits that the game’s launch was “disastrous” with the game feeling “unfinished” in a lot of ways.
“When you have a launch like we did – a disastrous launch, where nobody is able to play the game – there is no place to hide,” Starbreeze community head Almir Listo said in a new interview with PCGamesN. “But it’s important that we don’t use the technical issues as an excuse because we clearly missed the mark from an experience point of view as well.
“The game just felt unfinished. It was a bad experience for our players.”
Listo added that while its hard to make video games, it’s even tougher to make a game after a successful game that lasted a decade.
“Andreas and myself were part of the Payday 2 development team at that time,” he said. “Not everyone, ten years on, was still there. To draw the exact right learning from a ten-year production is challenging, but also every game project is different from another one. I think a lot of small things built up.”
What Happened With Payday 3’s Launch?
Lead Producer Andreas Penniger said that many of the problems came from the studio not doing their “due diligence” with what the players actually wanted from the game.
“It ended up being a product that people didn’t resonate with,” he said. “I think we were a bit confident from the success of Payday 2 that we ended up making decisions too quickly.”
With the game out for over a year and a number of updates released to players, Starbreeze is hoping that Payday 3 can have the same turnaround games like Cyberpunk 2077 had after a less-than-ideal launch.
“Something we’ve learned is to try and understand the community, understand what made Payday 2 successful, and then to try and translate that into a more modern context,” Penniger said.
“While we haven’t communicated what year two might be, for me, the game currently suffers from a split personality – trying to be too many things at once. Our focus needs to be a stronger core fantasy. Every heist needs to feel more tense, open-ended, and rewarding.”
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