To say the launch of Payday 3 was unhealthy could be an understatement. The sport launched with so many issues that Starbreeze CEO needed to publicly apologize. Issues solely bought worse on the time as updates to repair participant issues had been recurrently delayed.
Now, over a 12 months since its launch, Starbreeze as soon as once more admits that the sport’s launch was “disastrous” with the sport feeling “unfinished” in lots of methods.
“When you could have a launch like we did – a disastrous launch, the place no person is ready to play the sport – there is no such thing as a place to cover,” Starbreeze group head Almir Listo mentioned in a brand new interview with PCGamesN. “Nevertheless it’s vital that we don’t use the technical points as an excuse as a result of we clearly missed the mark from an expertise perspective as nicely.
“The sport simply felt unfinished. It was a foul expertise for our gamers.”
Listo added that whereas its arduous to make video video games, it’s even harder to make a sport after a profitable sport that lasted a decade.
“Andreas and myself had been a part of the Payday 2 growth workforce at the moment,” he mentioned. “Not everybody, ten years on, was nonetheless there. To attract the precise proper studying from a ten-year manufacturing is difficult, but in addition each sport venture is completely different from one other one. I feel lots of small issues constructed up.”
What Occurred With Payday 3’s Launch?
Lead Producer Andreas Penniger mentioned that most of the issues got here from the studio not doing their “due diligence” with what the gamers really wished from the sport.
“It ended up being a product that individuals didn’t resonate with,” he mentioned. “I feel we had been a bit assured from the success of Payday 2 that we ended up making selections too rapidly.”
With the sport out for over a 12 months and a variety of updates launched to gamers, Starbreeze is hoping that Payday 3 can have the identical turnaround video games like Cyberpunk 2077 had after a less-than-ideal launch.
“One thing we’ve realized is to try to perceive the group, perceive what made Payday 2 profitable, after which to try to translate that right into a extra trendy context,” Penniger mentioned.
“Whereas we haven’t communicated what 12 months two may be, for me, the sport presently suffers from a break up persona – making an attempt to be too many issues directly. Our focus must be a stronger core fantasy. Each heist must really feel extra tense, open-ended, and rewarding.”
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