‘Payday 3’ Back In Development After Trouble At Studio
Overkill Software has announced Payday 3 is back in development after its future seemed to be uncertain due to issues at its publisher. The game was announced in May 2016 and began production in 2017, but progress was slowed when publisher Starbreeze Studios was investigated and raided under claims of insider trading, for which two company executives were charged and arrested. Since then, Starbreeze Studios has been restructured and the parent company of Payday 2’s publisher – Digital Bros – has announced its interest in acquiring all Payday 2 assets from Starbreeze.
Aside from Payday 2, Starbreeze studios are also the company behind Overkill’s The Walking Dead, which was also the subject of cancelation claims just four months after its release. Troubling development isn’t an uncommon problem in the video game industry, as even veteran developers run into issues when it comes to producing their content. However, production problems always make fans nervous about the future of their favored franchises.
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Continuing to recover from Starbreeze’s controversies, the official Payday 2 Twitter account made a post announcing Payday 3 has resumed development. The post’s content is formatted in a way that makes it look like a mission dossier. The announcement states Payday 3 is confirmed to be in development using Unreal Engine and is in the design phase, but a release date is still to be decided. Given the issues at Starbreeze over the past few years, it seems likely that Payday 3 has a long way to go before it’s ready to be shown.
Payday 2 had a hyper-successful multiplayer run when it was released in 2013. The game lets players live out their fantasies of being high-class bank robbers. The sequel’s troubled development, while unfortunate, isn’t a surprising situation given Starbreeze’s legal troubles as well as the tumultuous nature of the gaming industry. Developers run into problems all the time, and it doesn’t take a pandemic to make that happen. BioWare’s Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda are just two examples from a single developer indicative of the industry’s turbulence.
With most of Starbreeze’s legal troubles behind it, hopefully, Payday fans will finally get more consistent status updates regarding the franchise’s third entry. On the other hand, it’s almost unreasonable to expect consistency in 2020, but one can hope. Regardless, Payday 3 won’t be available for consumption in the near future, though, its predecessor is still raking in the dough according to the game’s publisher. With the next console generation on the horizon, maybe fans will see an enhanced version of the Payday IP when it releases down the road.
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Source: Payday 2/Twitter
Read more: screenrant.com
