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Payday 3's launch has gone so badly that Starbreeze says it's now 'looking at the possibility of some sort of offline mode'

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
The launch of heist-shooter Payday 3 last week has not gone well. Persistent server problems have frustrated players, and the game's always-online requirement means that even people who want to play solo are having trouble getting into the game. The net result: A disastrous "mostly negative" user rating on Steam, where 68% of the nearly 25,000 user reviews are now thumbs down.

Developer Starbreeze has issued a statement on the situation, saying that Payday 3's matchmaking software ran into "an unforeseen error" which left it unable to handle the large number of players trying to get into the game. Making matters worse, a new version of the matchmaking software that rolled out over the weekend seemed to improve the situation—until a software update made on Sunday by Starbreeze's "third-party matchmaking partner" caused new instability in the server infrastructure.

The one potential upside to the mess is that it could mean Payday 3 ends up with a proper offline mode for singleplayer action. Starbreeze said that it is now looking for a new matchmaking services partner for Payday 3, and also making the game "less dependent on online services."

Sjögren affirmed on Twitter that the development team is "looking at [the] possibility to add some sort of offline mode."

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Payday 3 is the latest game to demonstrate that requiring a persistent online connection for singleplayer is never a good idea. Microsoft figured it out a decade ago with the Xbox One, and Bethesda got the message earlier this year with Redfall:
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Source
 
nikos

nikos

Member
Maybe I'm lucky but I haven't had any issues with the game. No clue why people would want to play this offline with bots. Wait for them to iron out the server issues instead of having them gimp the game.
 
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StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I dont know anything about servers but when you hear gamers waiting in queues it sounds to me they don’t have enough servers to handle the gamer pool.

Is it that hard to aim high on servers and scale down if the traffic isn’t there? Do companies have to commit to one year service fees from a server farm company so that’s why they prefer going cheap and scale up?
 
Griffon

Griffon

Member
Servers crashing on a multiplayer game launch is always a tragedy.

I wont comment on a few people complaining that an online mp game requires a connection to play. You're not the target audience here, move on.
 
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Zuzu

Zuzu

Member
When I load up a game and I'm faced with the requirement to make an online account with them to play the game I will more often than not just close the game down and uninstall it. Exoprimal did this to me recently and I just uninstalled it & didn't even play it. I shouldn't have to make an account to play your game. (I make some exceptions like playing something like Final Fantasy 14.)
 
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StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Zuzu said:
When I load up a game and I'm faced with the requirement to make an online account with them to play the game I will more often than not just close the game down and uninstall it. Exoprimal did this to me recently and I just uninstalled it & didn't even play it. I shouldn't have to make an account to play your game. (I make some exceptions like playing something like Final Fantasy 14.)
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I’ll do a sign up for EA. I think you got to to play sports games. Or maybe not. But I know it seems to log me into something.

But I dont for UBI games. Just to play a demo you got to make an account. No thanks. I don’t want to play your games that badly. Delete.
 
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Brigandier

Brigandier

Member
supernova8 said:
this video pretty much sums it up:


Really dumb "feature" is that you have to do matchmaking just to play with bots and even then it fails lol. Like wtf.
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Honestly I love this guy 🤣 his outbursts are so funny.

His review of the newest Sniper Elite or Sniper game was fucking hilarious when he was showing how bad the AI is.
 
supernova8

supernova8

Banned
Brigandier said:
Honestly I love this guy 🤣 his outbursts are so funny.

His review of the newest Sniper Elite or Sniper game was fucking hilarious when he was showing how bad the AI is.
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Totally agree! I love his rants when he highlights games from literally 20 years ago that have better design, AI, and polish than what he's reviewing.
 
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Bkdk

Bkdk

Member
It's rather sad that game devs these days can't even make a simple copy and paste job. For multiplayer sequel, all they have to do is copy and paste all the UI, features and create similar maps with better graphics, animations, sounds, yet they cannot even do this, no wonder why gamers these days are frustrated.
 
Robb

Robb

Gold Member
Zuzu said:
When I load up a game and I'm faced with the requirement to make an online account with them to play the game I will more often than not just close the game down and uninstall it.
Click to expand...
Same.. Instant uninstall for me if I can’t just boot it up and play.
 
Northeastmonk

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I can’t remember how I got Payday on Steam, but I played it years ago. Not sure I’d want to have an online only commitment with a new version of the same game. I’m more obligated to play the old games versus spend money on keeping their servers up and running.
 
Roberts

Roberts

Member
It’s not like I have tried many times but I still haven’t had the chance to play even one match. Matchmaking error message since I tried it for the first time on sunday.
 
Kusarigama

Kusarigama

Member
Even with MK1 and also with MK11 before it. All the single player progression is mandatory online. You are stuck with no progress if you lose your internet connection.
 
Kupfer

Kupfer

Member
lem0n said:
Always online requirement adds literally nothing but frustration. They can eat dicks.
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The only thing that it adds is the dependence on the developer, his servers and content.

It's every company's wet dream to have dependent customers that they can pull money out of their pocket, but for that you have to at least offer a good product at first.
 
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The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
Crime.net was great for Payday 2. Slick map that would ping heists(hosts), you could easily create a server, pick what you want, etc. Payday 3 feels like 100 steps backwards BUT if they think servers and offline mode are the only issues then they are kidding themselves. Just play Payday 2 and maybe get back to this shit in 3+ years assuming they didnt abandon it.
 
KormaChameleon

KormaChameleon

Member
Clearly developers have a memory of a goldfish. Don't they remember Simcity 13 or Diablo 3 when it was first launched with "constant connection" required?
 
STARSBarry

STARSBarry

Gold Member
So I managed to have the game consistently work for the first time last night.

It's alright, more of the same with a shiny coat of paint, compared to payday 2 there's far far less to do but if its updated as frequently that will quickly change.

I'm suprised how unmonitised it is, I was assuming it was going to have some sort of premium currency but at the moment everything appears to be just earned by playing the game. You essentially have cash and then a bitcoin rip off that gets more expensive the more of it you buy until a weekly reset. I assume the idea is to try and stagger some of the rewards so that people can slowly grind for it at a lower cost overall, but still can go all in and uber grind if they want to farm shit loads of cash.
 
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C

crackajack

Member
Bots and an offline mode should always be in mp games as a fail safe measure and also acting as a life extension.
Never understood why bots got better around UT99 times and after that many games stopped bothering anymore and if not a great success your game gets worthless very soon.
 
DaGwaphics

DaGwaphics

Member
It's always best to give these online games a week or two head start. Seems like whatever is done to simulate load on the back-end is never accurate for the initial rush of players.
 
MonkeyClaw36

MonkeyClaw36

Member
I went from Payday to Nayday......... What a crock of shit this is.

Who didn't see that storming mammoth coming from miles? Online required for a Single Player match!? If they supported drop-in co-op I would understand.
But even then. The current shituation is laughable.

Gamepass or not, this doesn't deserve a single mb of my storage.
 
Krappadizzle

Krappadizzle

Member
Payday franchise was the worst thing to happen to Starbreeze. The first 2 Payday games are excellent, especially with friends, but because of it's success it felt like Starbreeze became super lazy and started pumping out DLC.

Pretty long fall from the days of Enclave and Chronicles of Riddick to me. Hope they figured it out, but the way they pumped Payday 2 with DLC, kinda just turned me off from the series
 
Jinzo Prime

Jinzo Prime

Member
Did they not have an online beta for this game? You should always have a public beta for a large multiplayer game like this.
 
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