Whoever said that moaning and complaining won’t get you your way? After months of gamers almost unanimously whining about Payday 3 being online only, Starbreeze finally gave in.
To say that things haven’t turned out quite the way Starbreeze imagined they would when it comes to Payday 3 is, to put it mildly, an understatement. Since its launch in Septemeber of last year, the game has been unable to do anything right in the eyes of gamers.
While Payday 3 is still a lot of fun, the sales and player numbers remain significantly lower than what Starbreeze would like, leading the company to give in and give gamers what they want to try to turn things around.
“Payday 3’s sales and player activity are currently at significantly lower levels than we would like. Our biggest focus and absolute priority, both during and after the quarter, are the efforts needed to ensure that the game lives up to expectations.
We are working closely with our co-publishing partner Plaion to identify the changes that we will implement, in both the short- and long-term, that add the most value to the gaming experience.”
Just hours after the financial report was released, Starbreeze updated the community on the changes they could expect for Payday 3. Firstly, the controversial challenge-based progression system is being scrapped.
Matchmaking will also see a complete overhaul, and developers are looking into bringing back a server browser. The UI is being overhauled, and more importantly, an offline mode is finally coming.
“It is clear to us that the community wants the ability to play Payday 3 reliably and on your own terms. In order to meet that need, we will be doing two major changes to the current implementation.
Firstly, we will be developing a stand-alone solo mode you can get into without going through the matchmaking flow. This will be a local game on your own machine, thereby circumventing the need to connect to a server.
As playing co-op will always be dependent on connecting to another machine somewhere, we are seeking to implement the solution that provides the best balance between reliability, latency and overall experience.
Our technical leadership have been evaluating options for the past months and will be able to share more details on the solution in the near future.”
But now we want to hear from you. Are these changes enough to make you dive back into Payday 3, or is it too little too late? Let us know in the comments.