The Payday 3 release disappointed many, leading Starbreeze to consider adding an offline mode.
Payday 3 launched a few days ago on the 21st of September but has already faced criticism from fans. It seems the issue is with persistent server problems.
Due to the game’s necessity that you be constantly online, even solo players are having problems accessing it.
The game developer, Starbreeze, has released a public statement addressing the ongoing issues.
Starbreeze stated:
“PAYDAY 3 matchmaking infrastructure has not performed as tested and expected. Matchmaking software encountered an unforeseen error, which made it unable to handle the massive influx of players.
The issue caused an unrecoverable situation for Starbreeze’s third-party matchmaking partner.A new version of the matchmaking server software was gradually deployed across all regions leading to improved performance. However, a software update made by the partner during late Sunday again introduced instability to the matchmaking infrastructure.
The partner continues to work to improve and stabilize PAYDAY 3’s online systems. The issue in question did not manifest during Technical Betas or Early Access due to the specificity of rapid user influx and load-balancing.
Starbreeze is currently evaluating all options, both short- and long-term. In the short-term, this means Starbreeze’s focus is to ensure the player experience. In the long-term, this means evaluating a new partner for matchmaking services and making PAYDAY 3 less dependent on online services.”
The CEO of Starbreeze himself Tobias Sjogren had this to say:
“We are disappointed in the issues our playerbase has faced during our launch weekend, but we are confident in our core product and the quality of PAYDAY 3 – and all available metrics point to it. We have a lot of diligent and consistent work ahead of us to regain community trust, but we will work hard to do it.”.
One potential silver lining in this situation is the possibility of Payday 3 finally getting a dedicated offline mode for single-player gameplay. Starbreeze has announced its search for a new matchmaking services partner for Payday 3 and aims to reduce the game’s reliance on online services.
Sjogren reiterated this with a Twitter post stating:
This comes as a great relief to the player base since nothing is more infuriating than online problems preventing you from enjoying your own private games.
Throughout the weekend, solo players found themselves joining online servers just to play alone, and they faced additional obstacles due to frequent matchmaking issues.
However, players may face a tough experience ahead until Starbreeze addresses the problem, but we remain hopeful that a solution will be implemented soon.