Starbreeze on Payday 3 release: “The whole scene collapsed and everyone left”

Self-reflection and faith in the future when two team members talk.

There were great concerns for Payday 3 When it was released just over a year ago. First, technical issues that led to many being unable to play, and then a game that lacked some features that had long been present in its predecessor.

In conversation with Computer games Starbreeze's Andreas Benniger (lead producer) and Almir Listo (community manager) say they believe Payday 3 He has a future. At the same time, you're honestly thinking about what went wrong when it was released.

Benniger about the first show:

Our energy was like, “We're a rock band, we're going to go on stage, and we have a new album.” The whole scene collapsed and everyone left.

The list continues:

We experienced major technical issues, so the game was unplayable for almost several weeks. When you have a launch like ours — a disastrous launch, where no one can play the game — there's nowhere to hide. But it's important that we don't use technical issues as an excuse because we missed the mark in terms of experience. The game felt incomplete. It was a bad experience for our players.

Listo believes there were several reasons why things turned out the way they did. In the beginning, it's hard to make games, and every project works differently. “Then you were not adequately prepared and lacked a clear vision of what the third game would be like,” he says. There may also have been overconfidence in themselves after their success Payday 2.

User ratings on Steam have been rising since the summer, and the game recently launched.Mostly positive“Reviews. Listo says you need to do three things for the third to land with players: constantly improve the game, regain players' trust, and deliver a great story.

Payday 3 There were 77,000 concurrent players registered on Steam upon release. This number never came close again. yet.