After a catastrophic launch period, Payday 3 is assembling a veteran crew for its own daring rescue mission

GamesActionPayday 3After a catastrophic launch period, Payday 3 is assembling a veteran crew for its own daring rescue missionWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Starbreeze)

Payday 3�s criminal protagonists stand on a rooftop overlooking a city.

Payday 3 has not had the smoothest of launches, with PCG’s Tyler Colp finding some positives in the latest instalment of Starbreeze’s heist-em-up, but concluding that much of it “needs a rework.” Players were similarly unimpressed with elements like the progression system, the always-online requirement combined with matchmaking woes, various stability issues and then the cherry on top: a “critical error in our backend” that delayed the release ofthe first patches considerably.

So what’s the plan? Well, we don’t know yet, but the plan is definitely to come up with a plan. Over to Starbreeze:

“We’re well aware that many of you aren’t satisfied with the game the way it is in its current state,“says a new blogpostcredited to Almir Listo (brand director and community lead) and the Payday 3 team. “Since launch, we’ve been reading your valuable feedback [which] helps us massively and is crucial to the continued development of Payday 3.”

Listo says that “we’ve put together a strike team of veteran developers from the design, community, communication and production teams with the focus on bringing Payday 3 up to where it will meet your expectations.

“This team is currently creating a plan, deciding what will shape the game into the heisting experience you expect from a PAYDAY sequel in both the short & long term.”

There’s undoubtedly something amusing about a heist game assembling a grizzled crew of old-timers for One Last Job, and I reached out to ask Starbreeze about the main problems it is focused on, and who these veterans are. What are the primary complaints that Starbreeze is concerned about and intends to address?

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“We are currently looking at two different categories of feedback: our feature upvote page and the input from our community in our social media channels and forums,” said a Starbreeze rep. “We will be able to talk more in detail about what specific improvements we are looking to do when we communicate our roadmap in February. But in general it comes down to server and matchmaking experience, user experience and our players' requests for features and improvements.

“We will not be able to do everything at once, and it is essential to conduct a realism check on some of the feature requests. But with this initiative we want to make sure we properly investigate what we can do, how, and when.”

As for the veteran heist crew assembled for one last grizzled job, I asked who they were and where they came from.

“During the fall and winter we conducted a post-mortem with an external party that, together with the sentiment of our community, have led us to a clear understanding of what we need to do,” said Starbreeze. “The staff included in the strike team is put together based on those findings and are a mix of Payday 3/2 veterans as well as staff members from other projects that provide their expertise from working on games in similar situations at other studios.”

Starbreeze says to expect concrete details in February sometime, when “we will communicate a plan detailing the upcoming improvements and when you can expect to see them in the game.” Whether this will be enough to pull Payday 3 out of what looks like a bit of a tailspin remains to be seen, but at least getting the old gang back together is thematically appropriate.

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