Highlights
- Starbreeze Studios has announced that the first official patch for Payday 3 will be delayed again, leaving players disappointed and frustrated.
- Payday 3's launch was marred by numerous bugs and issues, resulting in negative reviews and a drastic drop in player numbers.
- While the delay may indicate a commitment from Starbreeze to improve the game, it may not be enough to save Payday 3's reputation or player base.
Developer Starbreeze Studios has announced that the first official patch for its new multiplayer heist game Payday 3 will be delayed once again, with no new release date having been confirmed. Since the official launch of Payday 3 last month, many players have been clamoring for a patch to fix a wide variety of bugs and quality of life issues with the game, and the development team at Starbreeze have been eager to assure fans that the promised patch will deliver the fixes they are seeking.
The release of Payday 3 in September of this year was met with a great deal of excitement by the devoted fans of its popular predecessor, Payday 2. However, the hype for Payday 3 quickly soured as its launch was riddled with problems, and the hotly anticipated title soon became one of the lowest rated games on Steam. Representatives of Starbreeze were quick to assure fans that a patch was coming, set to include over 200 quality of life improvements and bug fixes.
Originally scheduled for release in early October, the first Payday 3 patch was pushed back a couple of weeks due to a variety of technical issues. Today, Starbreeze representatives announced that the update would be delayed once again, this time giving no indication of when the long-awaited patch would be ready. The official announcement on the social media platform X stated that the developers were "spending additional time" on the patch, and that the company was "careful with giving you an ETA right now," before assuring fans that "the patch (and more news) are coming."
The reaction to this news among fans was, predictably, quite negative. Many users responded to the announcement by expressing frustration with the long delay, with some pointing out that Payday 3 has lost nearly 90% of its players in the month since its disastrous launch, according to Steam statistics. While many of the most serious Payday 3 server problems present at launch have been smoothed over, most players evidently still feel that the game is plagued with issues that Starbreeze has yet to meaningfully address.
To some extent, it can be viewed as a positive sign that Starbreeze is taking the necessary time to make sure the first Payday 3 patch works properly and fixes the issues it is intended to fix. Alongside the company's promise to look into offline options for Payday 3 in response to backlash, this lengthy development process for the patch could represent a commitment on the studio's part to improving the game over the long term. However, given the dire state of Payday 3 as it currently stands, these planned improvements may not arrive in time to salvage the game's reputation or its dwindling player base.
Payday 3 is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
