Almost a month after Payday 3's disastrous launch, its highly-anticipated first patch, which is said to include over 200 quality of life improvements, has been delayed a second time with no estimated release date.
"We’re sorry for the lack of communication regarding the first patch," Starbreeze community and influencer manager Elisabeth Elvestad wrote on the game's Discord. "We have identified some issues that need to be fixed before we can bring it to you, but rest assured that this is the main priority for our teams.
"We're spending additional time revamping our patching process to ensure that we can have a steady cadence and momentum with patches going forward. We are careful with giving you an ETA right now, as we want to make sure we can deliver before we do so. Please bear with us. The patch (and more news) are coming."
Payday 3 players have been living on the promise of the patch ever since it was slated for the first week of October. Reports of matchmaking errors, empty lobbies, cheaters, and frustrations with the challenge-based progression system have continued in the interim.
The news of another delay for the patch has left many players losing patience with Starbreeze.
"Games only get one launch and they thoroughly shit the bed with this one oh my god," Reddit user Mahoganytooth wrote in a reply to a post about the delay. "I'm sure they'll make the game better and more successful like they did with Payday 2, but they're building themselves their own hill to climb."
"I truly believe you can turn this game around, but I believe it less and less with each delay," Hank Garretson wrote in a reply to the announcement on Twitter (X).
The worst issues with Payday 3 were cleaned up with server maintenance early on, but players still find the co-op FPS lacking compared to Payday 2. One of the biggest criticisms is Payday 3's online-only requirement, which forces solo players to enter a queue before every mission. Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren said earlier this month the team is "looking at [the] possibility to add some sort of offline mode." Work on an offline mode for Payday 3 hasn't actually begun at this point, however.
If Payday 3's roadmap hasn't been pushed forward from the delay, it will receive another quality of life patch in November and its first DLC, Syntax Error, before the end of the year. Three more DLCs are planned to release throughout 2024.
Meanwhile, on Steam, 60% of the 31,000 user reviews for Payday 3 are negative, with fewer and fewer trickling in as the concurrent player count drops into the thousands. Payday 2, however, has returned to its spot in the top 50 most played games on the platform with around 31,000 players in-game right now.
