MODERN gaming adopting the “always-online” approach has always generated opinions ranging from apathy to outright scorn due to various factors, such as gamers not having access to a stable internet connection preventing them from playing the games and games being taken offline whenever there are server problems.
This is most certainly the case with Payday 3’s tumultuous launch over the Sept 21 weekend. Part of the decade-old Payday co-op bank robbery franchise, Payday 3 is the first game in the series to be online-only, and upon launch, it immediately ran into problems ranging from incessant crashes to slow matchmaking and server disconnections.
It was so bad that the game’s developer, Starbreeze Studios CEO Tobias Sjogren, issued a public apology on X (formerly Twitter). “We are so sorry that the infrastructure didn’t hold up as expected, and although it’s impossible to prepare for every scenario, we should be able to do better,” said Sjogren.
On Sept 18, the game provided “early access” to a select few gamers, which probably lulled the developers into thinking everything would be fine, but the massive influx of players several days later quickly broke the game.
Every platform that the game is available on faces problems. Players on PC were caught in the “searching” limbo while looking for matches, while Xbox users were hit with unstable server connections and outright crashes.
The PlayStation 5 users, on the other hand, had their own unique problem; their games launched with the wrong version.
“PS5 players: For reasons out of our control, you are currently playing an older version of the game. Sony is working on rolling out the proper patch,” tweeted lead producer Andreas Hall-Penninger.
A day later, the patch arrived, which was bad enough for those who bought the regular version of the game, but it was worse for those who bought the “Silver Edition” with US$30 (RM141) extra to play the game earlier.
For affected players and observers, Payday 3’s swathe of launch problems is yet another indicator that always being online is more of a detriment than a boon.