More News About Payday 3 Announced

Last week, OVERKILL Software and Starbreeze Studios began their anniversary celebration for ten years of the Payday series, starting with Payday: The Heist. There has already been a 10-day event going on with in-game events and items in Payday 2, as well as a short four-part documentary series. A lot of fans were looking forward to the special Livestream on October 22nd for any tidbit of news about the next entry, Payday 3.

The Livestream lasted over four hours and was packed with a bunch of fun Speedruns, Challenge runs, interviews, and news about the upcoming mobile game Payday: Crime War. The absolute highlight, however, was when they began to talk about the future with Payday 3 and revealed perhaps more than what most were expecting.

A very small consensus was given on the story, with the four main heisters pulled back into the life of crime a few years after the end of Payday 2. The setting will primarily be in New York City and a focus will be set on elements of the digital age, especially in regards to cryptocurrencies and the dark web.

It remains to be seen if the story will take a more grounded approach. The focus on the digital age does open up the door for crazy surveillance and even more shadowy organizations, but it’s unknown if will follow the same extreme and exaggerated tones of Payday 2.

For a quick summary, while Payday 2 started with simple bank robberies, it ended with shadowy organizations, a mountain of betrayals, and ancient prophecies that can all be experienced with 22 different heisters. There were also some heists focusing around characters from movies like John Wick or just stealing a bunch of goats in a crossover with Goat Simulator. Needless to say, the whole package is a hectic experience.

Concept art was also shown, showing the crew in action approaching a large bank, as well as entering a shootout with police as they leave it. A lot of destruction is shown, which might be more possible this time around as the game engine moves on from the…difficult Diesel game engine to Unreal Engine. The move to a better engine is more than enough to get me excited but seeing concept art like this helps a lot too.

We also got a better look at their new designs. In the previous two games, even though it was easy to tell them apart, their primary outfits didn’t say much about their characters. It feels like that was given more thought this time around, from the dignified Dallas with his clean coat, to the crazed Wolf using zip ties to roll up his sleeves. Payday 2 did add more cosmetic options in recent times, but there’s been no word on if that same level of customization (or hopefully better) will come to Payday 3.

Payday 2 is a game I’ve sunk a lot of time into. It’s had some high points and very low points throughout its lifetime, but the recent years have been nice and stable with a healthy player count. Even when it feels like some glitches are harder to deal with than the enemies on screen, the game has always remained unique and incredibly fun. If they can create a similar experience that runs better with Payday 3, I know I’ll be able to put even more hours in. For now, I just have to wait for more news ahead of its estimated 2023 release date.