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Payday 3 addresses “the elephant in the room” after rocky launch

A new Payday 3 update from Starbreeze addresses the lack of updates since launch, and shows off what free content and changes are coming.

Payday 3 update free: a man reloading an AR on a rooftop, with a duffle bag slung over his shoulder a black leather jacket on, wearing a clown mask with the American flag on it

After a rocky launch, Payday 3 studio Starbreeze has addressed why news on updates has been quiet for over a month, and what the team is doing to make sure the co-op heist game sequel bounces back. With a lot of free content and changes coming later this month, Payday 3 may finally be back on track.

At the start of a brand new Payday 3 update video, Starbreeze lead producer Andreas Häll-Penninger takes the time to address “the elephant in the room;” the much-maligned FPS game sequel’s lack of updates in its first month of release.

“Allow me to start talking about the elephant in the room,” Häll-Penninger says. “A lot of you want to know why this happened, and what we’ve done to make sure we don’t end up in this situation again. To make a long, complicated, and technical story short: we found a critical error in our backend update pipeline just after the game went live.”

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“As a result of this, there was a significant risk that any update we made could affect player saves and progression,” Häll-Penninger continues. “We had to make sure that the test environment functioned as intended before we could proceed with publishing the update. We have no reason to want to delay updates for this long, it was frustrating for both us and you, the players, that the launch went the way it did. We have taken the necessary steps to make sure that our updates will not cause more problems than they fix.

Payday 2’s Steam numbers alone have shown how players have reacted to Payday 3, as a number of issues have left long-time fans of the series wanting more. There was a big Payday 3 patch, and a lot of apologies, but the current player numbers speak for themselves.

That said, the new video update from Starbreeze also contains a lot of info about Payday 3’s first content update, which the studio hopes will win back player trust. There are two legacy heists from Payday 2 coming to the sequel: Cook Off and Murky Station.

We’ll also be hearing about the return of Locke and the new Transporter Skill Line, which focuses on the moving of bags of money. It will also deliver on the promise of that very first piece of concept art: let you carry two bags at once.

Payday 3 update free: a list of unlockable skills in Payday 3, with the new transporter ones

Last up, the challenge system is changing, with Starbreeze helping you always work toward your next infamy level, even if you’re not actively doing challenges. There’s not a release date yet, but you can expect a window of November 2023 for all of these free additions and changes.

While you’re in the heist shooter we’ve got you covered with all the Payday 3 vault codes, a Payday 3 crack safes guide, and even a look at the best ways to get Payday 3 C-Stacks too.

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