Payday 3 Update Fixes One of Its Biggest Launch Issues After Seven Months

ign.com:

Developer Starbreeze Entertainment is finally adding an important feature to Payday 3: Quickplay.

The studio announced the much-needed multiplayer component in a post on its website. The feature, along with Player Merging, will arrive as part of the next update. It says Quickplay is simple for now, allowing players to, well, select a difficulty mode and quickly join a Payday 3 multiplayer match. An updated version of the option is in the works, but players can rest easy knowing it'll be a little easier to actually start playing.

“We know we want to create an updated Quickplay, a v2, by building on the groundwork that we have for this update," Starbreeze explains. "What that will look like is still being discussed, and we’re open to suggestions. Currently, we’re at the crossroads of either creating a standalone Quickplay v2 with filters, or somehow baking it into the Crime.Net-style server browser coming later in the year.”

Player Merging, meanwhile, lets heisters remain in a party together after finishing a job. It’s another simple feature that players have asked for since launch. Starbreeze urges fans to leave feedback once they’ve finally gotten their hands on the new features.

Payday 3 suffered a notoriously troubled start when it launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S in September of last year. A rough online experience left many players unable to enjoy the game at all, with the wound made deeper by a lack of communication in the months following. In January 2024, Starbreeze announced that it had assembled a team to help turn things around, but Payday 3’s sales and engagement were still deemed disappointing as of last month. CEO Tobias Sjögren exited the company on March 20.

While there is undoubtedly a mountain of work to do, today’s update proves that Starbreeze is at least still dedicated to winning back its fans. In December, the team released Chapter 1: Syntax Error as the game’s first major DLC drop.

Despite its rough start for many, we found