Tag: Payday 3

Payday 3 matchmaking issues botch the action game’s launch

Payday 3’s matchmaking issues turned the action game’s launch weekend into a mess, and developer Starbreeze says the problems aren’t over

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Payday 3’s matchmaking issues turned the action game’s launch weekend into a mess, and developer Starbreeze says the problems aren’t over yet. Players who paid extra to access Payday 3 on Sep. 18, 2023 almost immediately ran into network problems, and now, Starbreeze says a third-party update has wreaked havoc on the multiplayer game’s matchmaking.

The issue first manifested as a network problem with Payday 3’s Nebula account system, which prevented players from logging in, even if they had an account. When they did manage to sign in, the matchmaking error popped up.

Payday 3 is always online, even if you want to play alone, so when situations such as these happen, you’re essentially blocked from playing at all.

Starbreeze published a statement on Sep. 25, 2023, and held a livestream explaining the situation. The studio said the massive influx of players at Payday 3’s launch led to unexpected issues with the servers, issues that didn’t show up during testing and early access. A third-party partner issued updates to fix the servers, and those updates have seemingly wrecked the servers entirely.

“We are disappointed in the issues our playerbase has faced during our launch weekend, but we are confident in our core product and the quality of Payday 3 – and all available metrics point to it. We have a lot of diligent and consistent work ahead of us to regain community trust, but we will work hard to do it.”, Tobias Sjögren, Starbreeze CEO, said in the statement.

In the statement, Starbreeze also said the team is evaluating a number of options for Payday 3’s future, which could potentially include a much-requested offline mode.

Meanwhile, if you’re trying to play Payday 3 in the coming days, expect some rough patches.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Starbreeze reveals new Payday 3 roadmap, characters

Starbreeze announced a new Payday 3 roadmap with future additions to the action game and revealed two new characters in a separate trailer

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Starbreeze announced a new Payday 3 roadmap with future additions to the action game and revealed two new characters in a separate trailer. The Payday 3 newcomers are Pearl and Joy, and the roadmap posted on Twitter promises four rounds of substantial DLC, with spurts of new cosmetics, characters, and more in between.

Starbreeze said each round of major DLC will launch in each season, with the first planned for winter 2023. 

  • Syntax Error – winter 2023
  • Boys in Blue – spring 2024
  • The Land of the Free – summer 2024
  • Fear and Greed – fall 2024

The roadmap doesn’t say what the DLC will actually consist of, though the studio said to expect “playable characters, new enemy, weapons, Unreal Engine 5 upgrade, cosmetics, quality of life improvements, new features and much more.”

As for the two new characters, Starbreeze said Pearl is “an expert con artist and infiltrator,” while Joy excels at hacking and manipulating security systems.

Payday 3 releases on Sep. 21, 2023, for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, and it’s one of our most anticipated video games releasing in September. An open beta running the weekend of Sep. 8, 2023, through Sep. 11, 2023, and as it’s an open beta, anyone can join. Expect plenty of bugs, errors, and server problems if you log in, though. Starbreeze is using the weekend to work out issues in the lead-up to launch.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Payday 3’s single-player mode will be always online

Fans are upset that the upcoming Payday 3 will be always online, even when playing in single-player.

Payday 3 is launching this September, 10 years after its predecessor. Fans of the series are excited about it, but there is some cause for frustration over certain design choices. Critical among them is the revelation that the game will be always online, even when playing the single-player mode.

Speaking during a live stream, brand director Almir Listo says, “You will be able to play by yourself, but I do believe you will have to have a connection in order to play.” They say this is “because it’s made in Unreal Engine and cross-progression and cross-play, I do believe we need you to be online.”

While all of the Payday games put the emphasis on online cooperative play, both of the previous games allowed for offline modes where NPCs would aid the player during their heists, but always online play is becoming increasingly common as of late. Most notably Redfall launched with a much-maligned online requirement that was all too eager to kick single players out of the game if their connection dropped for even a second.

The immediate community reaction has been largely negative – as it usually is for features like this – but it’s unlikely that developer Starbreeze will change its mind any time soon. However, if the game sustains a decent-sized player base like Payday 2 has for many years, it’s possible an offline option will eventually be added.

Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.