Starbreeze Acknowledges Payday 3 Launch Disaster
Starbreeze admits that the launch of Payday 3 was a disaster, a period during which it made bad decisions, but is more than ready to turn things around.
Learning from Mistakes and Moving Forward
Payday 3 faced issues with login problems, gameplay errors, and the absence of desired features by the community, which Starbreeze describes as “we were a rock band, we were about to hit the stage with a new album. Then the stage just collapsed and everyone left,” said Andreas Penniger, lead producer, to PCGamesN.
The developer regretted the problems that rendered the game unplayable for weeks, “a disastrous launch, during which no one could play the game. There’s no hiding from it. But it’s important not to use technical issues as an excuse, as we clearly also failed from an experiential perspective. The game felt unfinished. It was a bad experience for our players.”
Community Feedback and Commitment to Improvement
Penniger believes that one of the problems was developing Payday 3 without knowing exactly what they wanted from the game, but they did not expect to experience what Almir Listo, community manager, describes as “stumbling at the finish line, working for years only to see everything dissolve into nothing, it was the worst of situations.”
Starbreeze had to face the anger of fans, but Listo says it was completely deserved and without the players, they could not improve Payday 3. Listo commented that fans were not criticizing just for the sake of it, they were pointing out how to improve the game.
The improvements and updates from June 2024 have started to generate positive feedback from the community, which for Starbreeze is a strong assurance that they will continue to listen to players, to further enhance the gaming experience. One thing they already know is that each heist must convey its own sensations, and they will continue to work on that.
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