It hasn’t even been a whole month since Payday 3 was released, but the players are already actively abandoning the long-awaited game as a result of its beleaguered launch. Since it dropped, Payday 3 has been plagued by plenty of issues, most significantly the network issues that have arisen as a result of the developer’s decision to make it an always-online title.
It doesn’t end there. In an announcement, Starbreeze revealed that the first ‘big patch’ that’s supposed to resolve many of the current issues Payday 3 is experiencing has been delayed. It was supposed to drop ‘mid-October’, but owing to ‘some issues that need to fixed,’ it doesn’t look like that’ll be the case.
Payday Robbed Players
On Steam, Payday 3’s player count has crashed by almost 90% in just over three weeks. On the popular PC platform, there are almost ten times more players engaged in Payday 2 than in Payday 3, which is a perfect representative example of the state of play.
In a message published to Twitter hours ago, Starbreeze explained:
Heisters, we’re sorry for the lack of communication regarding the first patch. We have identified some issues that need to be fixed before we can bring it to you, but rest assured that this is the main priority for our teams.
It was then highlighted that the extra time that’s being spent is to ensure that, in the future, these types of updates and patches are more consistent and can be delivered on time.
At this point, much of the community is highlighting that there are some huge launches on the horizon – such as Spider-Man 2 this week and Modern Warfare III in a month, and any players that may have returned to Payday 3 will likely be moving on to something else in due course anyway.
It may be that Payday 3 never recovers.
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If a developer is given the time and resources, Cyberpunk’s redemption has convinced me almost any game can be saved. CDPR could have very easily just moved on from that game, particularly because the preorders made it profitable.
IMO the most important thing isn’t gamers moving on because of upcoming titles like Spiderman and COD. Gamers moved on from Cyberpunk. For Payday 3, IMO the most important question is whether developer Starbreeze Studios investors decide it’s not financially worth further investment.