Support NeoGAF

[Draugoth]

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."

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:

Source

 

[lem0n]

Always online requirement adds literally nothing but frustration. They can eat dicks.

 

[lh032]

yep studio is in serious trouble now.

 

[Danjin44]

Welcome to future of online only and GaaS games…….enjoy!

 

[ManaByte]

Always online requirement adds literally nothing but frustration. They can eat dicks.

It’s a four player co-op shooter. An offline mode would just be bots.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Always online requirement adds literally nothing but frustration. They can eat dicks.

It adds a lot.

It ensures for devs even offline gamers can get splash screens in their face saying new trinkets are available to purchase! Press X to play the game or Press Y to go to the e-store.

 

[lh032]

It’s a four player co-op shooter. An offline mode would just be bots.

online + offline is better than always online.
Its better than nth, although i dont play these GaaS games.

 

[supernova8]

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.

 

[Yoboman]

I remember when Starbreeze were the most promising single player FPS Dev in the market

Shame

 

[supernova8]

It’s a four player co-op shooter. An offline mode would just be bots.

You have to go through the game's online matchmaking menus just to play (what should be offline) with bots. It's fucked mate. Even worse is that the bot AI is apparently garbage (unsurprising but still).

 

[nikos]

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.

 

[Kilau]

“Why should I care about always online required? My internet is always on, move if you can’t get stable internet.”

 

[StreetsofBeige]

This company also made Syndicate way back. Shit game.

 

[nikos]

“Why should I care about always online required? My internet is always on, move if you can’t get stable internet.”

Except this is an online multiplayer game.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

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?

 

[Kilau]

Except this is an online multiplayer game.

Except it’s not working, even the non multiplayer.

 

[hlm666]

It’s a four player co-op shooter. An offline mode would just be bots.

It worked fine in the 2nd one, you would find alot of people wanting to stealth missions on overkill difficulty going solo or duo so they didn't get some randoms screwing things up.

 

[lem0n]

It’s a four player co-op shooter. An offline mode would just be bots.

Better than nothing at all.

 

[Griffon]

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.

 

[Pimpbaa]

I miss when they used to make Riddick games.

 

[Zuzu]

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.)

 

[StreetsofBeige]

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.)

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.

 

[Brigandier]

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.

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]

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.

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.

 

[Bkdk]

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.

 

[AGRacing]

I'll keep it installed for a while.

 

[theclaw135]

“Why should I care about always online required? My internet is always on, move if you can’t get stable internet.”

Hey some of us have unstable internet. So much for my attempt to play Star Trek Bridge Crew.

 

[Robb]

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.

Same.. Instant uninstall for me if I can’t just boot it up and play.

 

[Northeastmonk]

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]

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.

 

[systemr123]

I remember when Starbreeze were the most promising single player FPS Dev in the market

Shame

Organic growth, in the opposite direction

 

[Mephisto40]

I find it a little bizarre that people are complaining about a 4 player coop game being online only

 

[Kusarigama]

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]

Always online requirement adds literally nothing but frustration. They can eat dicks.

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.

 

[The Cockatrice]

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]

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]

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.

 

[xrnzaaas]

I remember when Starbreeze were the most promising single player FPS Dev in the market

Shame

Yep they should redeem themselves by making another Riddick game.

 

[crackajack]

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.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

This company also made Syndicate way back. Shit game.

Wait which one? The isometric or FPS?

Well I actually liked both, played the shit out of the old school one.

 

[Fake]

Ladies and gentlemen, the Always-Online.

 

[SportsFan581]

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.

 

[sn0man]

It’s a four player co-op shooter. An offline mode would just be bots.

Or a LAN mode!

 

[Magic Carpet]

Ladys and gentlemen, the Always-Online.

Thanks, I hate it.

 

[intbal]

This company also made Syndicate way back. Shit game.

Every time someone mentions Syndicate, I'm going to post this screenshot.
(Seizure warning)

Spoiler

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

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]

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]

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

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

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

Beta is a MUCH smaller group of people. The servers were able to handle that amount apparantly.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

It’s a four player co-op shooter. An offline mode would just be bots.

I find it a little bizarre that people are complaining about a 4 player coop game being online only

Tell us you haven't played payday 2 without telling us you haven't played payday 2.