Since the release of Payday 3, server issues, poor matchmaking, bugs, and performance problems have continued to be among the players’ complaints. The game, which has struggled for a whole year, has fallen far short of the success of the first two games. The game’s lead producer addressed the reasons behind this situation and made a self-criticism.
Why was Payday 3 a disaster?
After the long-lasting success of Payday 2, Payday 3 was released with high expectations but failed to meet the anticipated success, disappointing its fans. The technical issues, lack of content, and decline in gameplay experience that accompanied its launch were severely criticized by players, and this was reflected in the game’s Steam ratings.
The game’s lead producer, Penniger, expressed their disappointment in an interview, saying, “It was like getting on stage with a rock band, preparing to perform our new album, only for the entire stage to collapse and everyone to leave.”
Another member of the production team, Listo, said, “We experienced a disastrous launch where players couldn’t play the game. There’s nowhere to hide. But it’s important that we don’t use the technical issues as an excuse because we also clearly failed in terms of experience. The game felt unfinished. It was a bad experience for our players.” acknowledging the situation.
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When Listo was asked why they couldn’t achieve the success of the first two installments, he stated that making a game is very difficult, especially after a title like Payday 2, which achieved great success both at launch and in the following 10 years.
Penniger added, “Most of the problems stemmed from not showing enough care. We built Payday 3 while trying to figure out what we wanted from it. As a result, we ended up with a product that didn’t resonate with people. I think we were a little too overconfident because of Payday 2’s success and made decisions too quickly.”
Despite the team’s efforts to take player feedback into account and salvage Payday 3, this hasn’t yet been reflected in the game’s active player count. Time will tell if they can turn things around.
