Payday 3 developer Starbreeze Studios has admitted that the heist shooter is performing at "significantly lower levels" than desired.
In an earnings report for 2023 released earlier today, Starbreeze says that both sales and player activity for the game are low, but that it's working with co-publisher Plaion (formerly Koch Media) to identify the problem and rectify it.
The studio says it will announce the changes it plans to implement in order to set Payday 3 up for long-term success sometime this month.
Starbreeze seems to be remaining optimistic about Payday 3's chances. The studio says that there are "many examples from the game industry" wherein a "problematic initial time" at launch is transformed into long-term success.
According to Starbreeze, the most important factors in effecting this change are "tak[ing] players' criticism to heart, dar[ing] to support your game and keeping an open and honest dialogue with your stakeholders".
Intriguingly enough, Starbreeze says that even though sales of Payday 3 are flagging, Payday 2 has actually performed slightly better than the studio expected during this period, demonstrating "the strength of the brand".
It's true; a quick look at SteamDB figures shows that Payday 2's 24-hour peak hit around 30,000 players (at time of writing), while Payday 3's lags far, far behind at just 300 or so.
As well as working on Payday 3, Starbreeze says it intends to build "a strong and diversified" studio by developing games based on original IPs and licensed work, as well as publishing other studios' games.
Starbreeze points to the recent announcement of its upcoming Dungeons and Dragons-based live-service game, which is due out sometime in 2025 or so, as evidence of this effort.
The studio also highlights last November's release of roguelite FPS Roboquest, which had a "positive impact on both net sales and earnings".
We'll have to wait and see what Starbreeze intends to do in order to turn Payday 3's fortunes around. Until then, you can grab the game right now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
