Payday 3 developer Starbreeze has sparked backlash after confirming plans to make a “significantly lower level of investment” in the game’s second year.
Starbreeze’s struggle with Payday 3 after last year’s disastrous launch is well-documented, but its recent series of year one anniversary updates were well-received by players who had hoped for similarly significant updates during the co-op shooter’s second year. Indeed, Payday 3’s recent Steam user reviews are on ‘mostly positive’, with all reviews on ‘mixed.’
However, that goodwill may now be under threat after comments from Starbreeze acting CEO Mats Juhl in a financial report caused some Payday 3 players to express concern that the studio was now prioritizing its Dungeons & Dragons game instead.
The backlash revolves around Juhl’s comment on Payday 3’s level of investment for year two versus year one. It is below, reproduced in its entirety.
During the quarter, both the third and fourth DLCs for Payday 3 – “Chapter 3: Houston Breakout” and “Chapter 4: Fear & Greed” were released. In conjunction with both launches, a lot of free content was also released to all players, including a new free heist. Both DLCs received a very positive reception from the player base and the game’s rating on Steam, among others, has taken significant steps upwards. The game’s MAU (monthly active players) is holding steady considering that we in September left Xbox GamePass. The level of investment during Payday 3’s first year on the market, both through launched DLCs and “Operation Medic Bag”, has been at an elevated level. Ahead of year two, we are confident in being able to continue delivering amounts of value to our players with a significantly lower level of investment.
That last line (“significantly lower level of investment”) is the one causing all the damage here, and players are blaming it on Starbreeze shifting focus onto Project Baxter, its in-development Dungeons & Dragons game. Elsewhere in the financial report, Juhl said production on Project Baxter had ramped up (along with the payment of licensing fees to Wizards of the Coast), and that as Payday 3’s game-saving Operation Medic Bag updates ramp down, the game will enter year two “with a smaller team focused on continuously updating the game with new content.”
Disgruntled players have taken to Steam reviews to let their feelings about this be known. “Dead game,” reads one negative review, “like this time for real.” “Dropping this game as soon as it started to show promise is insane,” said another. “Significantly lower,” another review reads. “I’ve tried defending this game for so long, but it is really frustrating seeing the company executives kill this game before it has a chance to fully recover just to fund their next project that will more than likely flop, just like Payday 3,” another reviewer said. “Save your money and the headache; Payday 3’s future is genuinely grim.”
It’s a similar outcry over on the Payday subreddit, where fans are already hitting out at Starbreeze and Project Baxter.
Despite this, Starbreeze sounds like it still believes in Payday 3, even if some of its players do not. “Starbreeze remains financially strong, with a healthy balance sheet almost free of debt and a cash position to execute our strategy,” Juhl said. “Sales of Payday 3 still have great potential to improve, which is offset somewhat by continued relatively stable sales of Payday 2 and third-party publishing of, among other things, Roboquest. During the same period last year, we booked the revenue attributable to Payday 3’s launch, which makes the revenue in the comparison period uniquely high.”
Speaking of Payday 2, significantly more people are playing that game on Steam (27,553 24 hour peak) than Payday 3 (1,314 24 hour peak), despite the former being over a decade old. In September, Payday 3 director Miodrag Kovačević stepped down to work as a designer instead. Lead producer Andreas Penninger and global brand director Almir Listo were put in place to act as the “creative force” behind the game “in the interim.”
Starbreeze is still hiring for Project Baxter, meanwhile, as work on the game “continues at full speed.” “Internally, we have weekly playtests of Baxter, and active discussions with a number of industry-leading players regarding potential collaborations around Baxter’s development and launch,” Juhl said. Starbreeze said it has 191 total employees, most of which are based at its head office in Stockholm, Sweden.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.