Payday 3 Developers Have Given a Sincere Apology for the Game’s Poor Launch 

Payday 3 was supposed to be a massive success as it generated a large fanbase from its intriguing take on an online shooter game. However, server and matchmaking issues have plagued and overshadowed their successful opening weekend, as the game received massive backlash from the community despite generating a peak concurrent player count of 218,250 and a high of 1,347,510 unique users.

We have deployed some fixes, but we're still seeing instability in the matchmaking. We're continuing investigation and will keep working on addressing this.

— PAYDAY 3 (@PAYDAYGame) September 22, 2023

The issues were so noticeable that the CEO of Payday 3 and Starbreeze, Tobias Sjögren, apologised on his personal Twitter account on launch day before Payday 3’s official account outlined the issues and clarified they were encountering problems with a third-party service. Despite launching an update, the problems resurfaced, and fans bombarded the game with negative reviews. On September 25th, the global brand director and lead director went on Twitch to apologise and discuss the game’s future.

Server and Matchmaking Issues in Payday 3

Before getting into any damage limitation by the developers of Payday 3, let us take a look at the large server and matchmaking issues destroying the game. Firstly, the signs started ominously for owners of the Silver and Gold editions of Payday 3, as the server stability seemed unstable at best. 

However, once players accessed the game on full launch day, the matchmaking server suffered severe outages. On the same day, the matchmaking server went fully down as the developers spent most of their day issuing updates, though most did not solve the underlying issue. For example, players can queue up after initial updates, but the problems started appearing again as it spread across all platforms. 

To make matters worse, the circle repeated itself throughout the weekend as it has gotten to the point that no one can create a lobby in Payday 3. Thus, players lost hope in the game and gave up on the game entirely. However, they still wanted to give their final verdict as they bombarded the game on Steam with negative reviews and gave sarcastic comments such as, it is a good game if we can play it. Currently, only 32% of 26,000+ reviews on the game are positive.

Payday 3 CEO Apologises on Twitter for Unstable Launch

There are many ways a company can respond to a crisis, and one such way is damage limitation through admitting its fault and apologising to its user. The Payday 3 CEO, Tobias Sjögren, took this approach and expressed regret for the unforeseen issues and their incompetence in planning ahead for the problem.

We are so sorry that the infrastructure didn’t hold up as expected, and although it’s impossible to prepare for every scenario – we should be able to do better. We work tirelessly until we have restored all services and our players can get back to heisting again without issues!

— Tobias Sjögren (@tobiassjogren) September 22, 2023

On Twitter, he wrote: “We are so sorry that the infrastructure did not hold up as expected, and although it is impossible to prepare for every scenario – we should be able to do better. We work tirelessly until we have restored all services and our players can get back to heisting again without issues!”

While it was nice to see someone owning up to their mistakes, the issue continued to persist, and he made a follow-up statement seeking the community’s trust. “We are disappointed in the issues our player base 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.”

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Global Brand Director and Lead Director Apologises on Twitch Stream

Prior to their appearance on Twitch, Payday 3 issued a statement regarding the latest update, confirming that matchmaking services have resumed and that the team is working on stabilising things so Payday 3 does not run into the same problems in the future. However, it did not stop Almir Listo and Andreas Häll Penninger from apologising continuously during the hour-long live Q&A with fans on Twitch.

“This launch did not go as expected. We understand that many of you are extremely frustrated and angry, and we are too,” Penniger said. On the other hand, Listo asked for the community’s patience and understanding as the team has worked around the clock to fix the issues, but they can only do so much. 

While the stream started on a sour note, the developers did give insight into the game’s features by mentioning an offline mode and many more features. Let us take a look below.  

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Future Features in Payday 3

Although Penniger did mention the company cannot commit to yes or no answers for any future feature for Payday 3 at this stage, they still confirmed the prospect of adding an offline mode for the game. 

Furthermore, they highlighted other functions they wanted to add to the game in the stream that we summarise into bullet points for your ease of view.

• Text and voice chat in the lobby
• An “Unready” button in the lobby
• The ability to rename the loadout screen
• Improvements to the Challenge system
• Mouse and keyboard support on Xbox and PlayStation consoles
• A Quick Play option
• A new skill line called Transporter that lets you carry two loot bags

In addition to the four post-launch DLCs previously announced for the game in its first year, the developers of Payday 3 seem to be doing their utmost to regain the community’s trust and make up for their previous mistakes. 

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Concluding Remarks 

Everyone can make mistakes, but having the courage to own up to one is worth commemorating, as not everyone likes to swallow their ego and apologise. Thus, we will look forward to the further improvements of Payday 3 and accept the apology from the developers. What are your thoughts? Let us know on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Is Payday 3 Still Worth It?

If we disregard the matchmaking and server issues, Payday 3 is still one of the much-anticipated sequels to one of the most popular co-op shooters ever. However, if you want a game with no issues, we recommend trying out the shooter game Metroid Prime Remastered.

Which DLC Is Coming First?

Starbreeze has previously announced their first-year road map for Payday 3 and Syntax Error, the first DLC will arrive in Winter 2023. The other DLCs, such as Boys in Blue, The Land of the Free and Fear and Greed, will launch in Spring, Summer and Fall next year. 

How to Report Bugs and Issues in Payday 3?

Starbreeze studio has opened a public feedback and bug reporting page for players to report any bugs and issues they encounter in the game. It is the exact page used in the closed beta, and it will gather technical problems and bugs for Payday 3 and then forward it to Starbreeze Studio for review.