There are also plans to make the transition to Unreal Engine 5 after launch, and the console and PC versions of the game will have crossplay and version parity.Īs Storlokken puts it, the team wants to ‘set up a game where we can interact with the community in interesting ways.’ They’ve already got 18 months of post-launch content planned, with the idea that hopefully the audience response will be strong enough to keep them going. Whenever the team wants to add something new, they ‘don’t have to redesign large portions of the game’, says Listo. The game has shifted over to Unreal Engine 4, for example, which the studio views as an easier platform to continue building on.

In a way, Payday 3 represents Starbreeze taking a moment to establish a strong new foothold, and use that as a basis to keep on climbing. And I mean, we’ve made some pretty big mistakes, but those are the ones you learn from, more than anything.’ Storlokken adds, ‘Over time, we got a lot of learnings from dealing with the community. Payday 3 changes that.’ Amir Listo and Per Storlokken, Starbreeze Studios

‘It created difficult situations where systems were designed for the short term rather than the long term. ‘We didn’t expect to do so much with ,’ says Amir Listo, global brand director and longtime Payday producer. Payday 2 was never built to have such a long tail, and balancing ideas for new content with what the audience actually wants to play is also a tricky thing to manage, especially when you’re not totally well-equipped for it. Starbreeze points out that it’s consistently floating around the Top 20 most-played games on Steam, even today, and has supposedly amassed over USD $300 million in revenue.īut having such a passionate and hungry audience came with some major challenges. After Payday 2 found a passionate audience, it continued to receive countless updates in order to support that unprecedentedly loyal base.

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