In a press release, CEO Adolf Kristjansson said, “This was a difficult but necessary decision. Our strategy is clear: Payday is one of the most iconic IPs in gaming, with unmatched reach and potential. By focusing our investment and talent here, we can accelerate delivery, engage players with more content, and reinforce Starbreeze’s position as the clear leader in the heisting genre. This is about sharpening our focus to create the strongest long-term value for our players, our people, and our shareholders.”

Alongside a non-cash impairment of SEK 255 million (roughly $27.2 million), Starbreeze is redeploying Project Baxter team members to other projects, “most prominently within Payday.” However, it also confirmed layoffs for about 44 contractors and employees to GameDeveloper, though since the following weeks will see union negotiations, the “exact number” couldn’t be specified.

In development on Unreal Engine 5, Project Baxter hadn’t received a gameplay reveal or official title. It would have been another games-as-a-service title, and then-CEO Tobias Sjogren said it was “hard to imagine a better pairing than Dungeons and Dragons and Starbreeze.”

As for what this means for Payday 3, which has floundered since its launch in September 2023, despite multiple updates and improvements. Starbreeze also faced fresh controversy with its new DLC subscription model and price hike on the Infamous Collection for Payday 2. Stay tuned for updates, as always.

Or, well, they should have been, because things have certainly not gone right for the game since it came out in September. From the state that it launched in to the chaos that has surrounding the process of Starbreeze beginning the process of fixing it, Payday 3 has stumbled right out the gate, and so much of the momentum that the franchise had built up over the last several years has dissipated thanks to all of that bad press. The Payday series’ graph, which had been consistently rising for over a decade, suddenly feels like it’s plummeting.

When the first Payday released for PS3 and PC back in the day, it was very much the opposite of a big deal. Coming from a smaller studio and released as a digital-only title (which, back in 2011, was far less common than it is now), it was a smaller-scale title that went on to achieve greater success than perhaps most would have anticipated. While reviews for Payday: The Heist were lukewarm at best, word of mouth was strong, and those who did play the game had plenty of good things to say about its co-op mechanics, entertaining shooting, and tense heists, even if it was a little rough around the edges. Within a year of its release, Payday: The Heist had sold over 700,000 units. Though not an earth-shattering number, those were impressive sales for smaller, digital-only game nonetheless- and most importantly, they were enough to warrant a sequel.

Because that’s where the Payday franchise really took off. A couple of years after the first game’s launch, Payday 2 came out, and marked the beginning of an impressive explosion in popularity for the series. With its pre-orders alone, Payday 2 had sold enough copies to begin turning a profit, and within a month of its release, it had sold 1.58 million units. And that early success was only the beginning, because the game went on to enjoy a far longer tail than most would have expected. In fact, as of early 2023, it had sold over 40 million units worldwide, while also having one of the largest active communities on Steam with over 8 million lifetime players on the platform.

Of course, Payday 2 has had its fair share of ups and downs as well, in spite of the success that it has enjoyed. For starters, the disparity between the game’s PC and console versions is a major issue that plagued the game for years on end, thanks to the frustrating optimization issues across platforms brought about by the Diesel Engine, which the game was developed on. Meanwhile, in 2015, a couple of years after its launch, Payday 2 also attracted plenty of controversy with its inclusion of pay-to-win microtransactions, made even worse by the fact that the game’s developers had said prior to its release that all of its microtransactions would be purely cosmetic. Additionally, even from a content and mechanics perspective, it was clear upon Payday 2’s launch that it was very much a work in progress.

In spite of its issues, however, the game had plenty going for it, with everything from its heists to the smart and significant ways in which it expanded upon the original’s co-op formula creating a solid, steady foundation for the game to build on. And build on it did. Payday 2 was supported for several years, far longer than most people would have anticipated- including, funnily enough, the developers. Post-launch support for the game technically ended in late 2018, but a year later, it was announced that support had resumed once again. And when all was said and done, looking back at Payday 2, it was hard not to be impressed with how the game grew and improved over the years.

Enter: Payday 3, a game that very much feels like a case of one step forward, two steps back. Payday 3 surely makes some notable improvements over its predecessors, from its excellent shooting mechanics to some of its more interesting ideas with the Skills system, while playing through heists still remains an exciting endeavor. On the development side of things, meanwhile, with the game having shifted to Unreal Engine, it also has parity across all platforms, something that, as we’ve mentioned, was a big issue with Payday 2.

But those improvements are lost in a glut of poor design decisions, baffling choices, and technical issues, all of which have let down Payday 3 in some fundamental ways. The game’s always-online nature, for starters, has irked plenty of players quite a bit, as have the many connectivity problems it has faced since release. In the days and weeks after its launch, finding a lobby full of players to play with in Payday 3 felt almost like an impossible task, which meant having to play with bots, which in turn meant having to suffer their braindead AI and utter incompetence.

Another major issue that has crippled the game in the early stages of its life is its grindy Infamy progression system, and the inordinate emphasis it places on challenges, which feels like it’s almost missing the point of why people want to play Payday. Add to that some baffling omissions (like there being no quick play options) and the game lacking enough content to keep players occupied for too long, and things have certainly not got off to a great start for Payday 3.

To top it off, all of that has been made worse by the chaos surrounding the release of its first patch, which was delayed multiple times due to what were described as “critical” development errors, only to arrive last week, a month and a half after the game’s release, with over a hundred fixes. Unsurprisingly, the game has drawn widespread criticism from players since its release, and that has been reflected in its numbers. Though it managed to attract an impressive 3.1 million players in September alone, there were periods following its release where its concurrent player numbers were consistently falling below those of Payday 2.

Thankfully, Payday 3 doesn’t seem to be a completely unsalvageable mess. For starters, at its core, the game boasts excellent shooting mechanics, and heists are still a lot of fun (at least when the game is functioning as intended). Of course, it’s everything around that core that needs work. Payday 3 needs a serious injection of quality-of-life features, content, and technical polish, because right now, it’s in very rough shape. If Starbreeze can support it the way its predecessor was supported, we can definitely see a future where the co-op shooter makes an impressive recovery. Will that actually happen? That remains to be seen, but given how big of a money-maker the Payday property has been over the last decade, we’d be surprised if Starbreeze didn’t give it its best shot.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Overkill Software is working on a video game in The Walking Dead franchise and while a formal reveal is still to come, writer and creator Robert Kirkman spoke to an SXSW Panel about what to expect.

As reported by Polygon, Kirkman revealed that the project would be similar to Payday. “It will be Payday-esque. But I’m told it will be in a bigger world than Payday currently encompasses. They are going to be learning a lot of stuff from Payday that they will be incorporating into The Walking Dead game.”

Interestingly, it will be an “online and interactive” experience. “PayDay is an online cooperative game correct? Yes. So it will follow a similar approach. That’s good news.”

The question remains as to how exactly that will work out but Kirkman promises that “there will be announcements about that game very soon”. Stay tuned for more information on the same and let us know what you hope to see in Overkill’s The Walking Dead.

After reaching 1.5 million users for the PayDay 2 group on Steam, Overkill Software has announced that the original PayDay will be available for PC players on October 16th. Starting 10 AM PST, you’ll be able to download the game and add it to your Steam library within a 24 hour period. If you’re not willing to spend the $15 asking price or simply didn’t bother with the game because you own PayDay 2, it’s a pretty good deal.

PayDay is being offered for free as a milestone for the number of users that join its group. There will be other in-game rewards and “secret stuff” given out as rewards. Right now though, it can’t get any better than the original PayDay which is a fun albeit difficult co-op shooter centred on heists, robberies and all manner of chaos.

Will you pick up PayDay on Steam? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Sony and Overkill have announced that they will be releasing a new game update for their title, Payday: The Heist.

Key features of this game update include:

• Masks of Disguise: Feeling stately?Presidential masks are now available to those players that have reached level 145. Players can grab a Golden mask when all heists are completed on OVERKILL 145+. BEEEF masks have also been added to the game, and can be picked up in the lobby.
• OVERKILL 145+: Players that have reached level 145 can now play on a new difficulty called OVERKILL 145+, which opens up the possibility for new events and achievements. It also unlocks new weapons, such as the crowbar to open doors, as well as leaderboards.
• DROP-IN: With the added in-game drop-in ability, players can set the server to allow for others to join the game mid-heist. Players can also filter players by setting server reputation and difficulty requirements.
• SWAT Tactics: The SWAT captain has trained a slew of new recruits, resulting in challenging new tactics and counter measures for players to face on each of the heists.
• Sweet Moves: Players can check out new weapon animations for the Shotgun. Law enforcers now move more tactically than ever before. Even civilians have new dance animations in the DIAMOND HEIST.
• Portrait Window Additions: Players can now see the name of the character they are currently playing in the portrait window while in game.
• Compare Worldwide: PC Players can now view statistics on how many players in the world have completed the different heists on all difficulties through the ”SELECT HEIST” menu.
• Expanding Field of View (FoV): PC Players can now choose what FoV they want to use ranging from 60 to 100 through the advanced graphics menu.
• DIAMOND HEIST Music: For PC players, as a token of appreciation to the community, 200 of the most dedicated career criminals’ nicknames have been immortalized in-game. The DJ has added a new music track, doing shout-outs to 200 players in the community.

This game update is available for download at no additional cost on Steam and PSN.

Players will embark on a spectacular crime spree of six heart stopping heists, including blasting their way through a downtown bank vault robbery, managing hostages in an armored car hijacking and even a midnight infiltration of a top-secret, high-security facility. Additionally, PAYDAY: The Heist challenges players with dynamic environments and adaptive enemy tactics — meaning no scenario will ever play out the same way twice. Teamwork is essential to ensure crew members provide cover under fire, guard key access points, break through various security measures and keep civilians in check. Survive wave after wave of the best that law enforcement can deploy as they shift strategies in response to player actions and gameplay style.

For more on PAYDAY: The Heist please click here

Sony have released a tasty new trailer for their upcoming multiplayer shooter Payday: The Heist.

It shows off a sample of some of the gritty four player co-op action players will be in for. Check it out above.