Payday 3 had a turbulent start and needed multiple updates to become playable. Although Starbreeze is not giving up on the game, they believe they can offer value to players in the game’s second year with a “significantly lower level of investment”.
This was disclosed in the company’s January to September 2024 interim report. The report showed that Payday 3’s sales have remained strong, although Payday 2 still brought in nearly 50% of Payday 3’s earnings. From January to September 2024, the company made SEK 68.2 million (approx. $6.2 million) from Payday 3 sales and 31.6 million (approx. $2.8 million) from Payday 2.
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“This time last year we had just launched PAYDAY 3 – a milestone for us as a studio, and a commercial success, but also a launch marred by a series of technical issues,” said the company’s acting CEO Mats Juhl.
“During the quarter we had our largest investment in our own game development to date, a combination of both major updates for PAYDAY 3 but also for production of Project Baxter and payment of licensing fees to Wizards of the Coast. In the coming months, the level of investment will be lower as we round off “Operation Medic Bag” for PAYDAY and therefore enter Year 2 with a smaller team focused on continuously updating the game with new content.”
While Payday 3 players should expect new content, the rate at which these contents will be released would be significantly slower, considering the shrunken team. Starbreeze reported a “healthy balance sheet” that is almost debt-free.
The company is shifting gears to focus on Project Baxter which is a Dungeons & Dragons game. Starbreeze reported that the “production of Baxter continues at full speed”. The company will publish the game and is focused on giving it “the best possible commercial conditions”.
The sentiments around Payday 3 have improved since its troubled launch, although the player count has plummeted. At the time of writing, only 768 people were playing the game on Steam—and that’s a steep decline for a game that peaked at 77,938 concurrent players.
