If you’ve been looking forward to the possibility of playing the upcoming Payday 3 single-player and you don’t have a great internet connection, Starbreeze Studios has some bad news to share.
Last night, Starbreeze Studios unveiled more information about the single-player mode of Payday 3, and a core takeaway is that the game’s always-online requirement is attached to all game modes, even single-player.
Payday 3 is the highly anticipated sequel to 2013’s Payday 2. The game will feature the same beloved heisters from the previous game and will take place in a modern version of New York, with new heists and robberies to conduct throughout the city.
The game will also take advantage of technologies introduced in the past decade, such as cryptocurrencies and heists linked to mass surveillance and the Dark Web. While Starbreeze Studios hasn’t revealed many details regarding the new heists, they have said players can expect many new and improved challenges.
No one expected one of these challenges to be an always online restriction. The Payday series has always been known for its multiplayer mode, yet there has always been the option for those who want to play alone to team up with computer-generated criminals, and Payday 3 is no different.
In a recent live stream, Starbreeze Studios confirmed that even in Payday 3’s solo mode, players would need to be connected to the internet. Starbreeze Studios explained this decision was made because the game supports cross-progression and crossplay, so an internet connection is required to save players’ data and transfer it from one platform to another.
However, many fans wanted more than this explanation and took to the comments section of the live stream to express their disappointment and frustrations. The common consensus among those upset is that they would only want to play Payday 3 solo when no internet connection is available and don’t care about cross-progression features, with some going as far as to say they would no longer purchase Payday 3 due to this lack of offline mode.
Payday 3 is set to launch on the 21st of September for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
What do you think about the game’s always online requirements? Is this a deal breaker for you? Let us know in the comments.