Starbreeze Studios has announced major changes to Payday 3‘s creative leadership team – with former game director Miodrag Kovačevićas “stepping away” from the role – as the co-operative shooter continues to struggle against its decade-old predecessor Payday 2.
Back in February, Starbreeze admitted Payday 3 player activity was “currently at significantly lower levels than [it] would like”, and a month later, CEO Tobias Sjögren was ousted from his role after the company’s board determined the studio “needs a different leadership”. But a quick look at Steam Charts suggests Payday 3’s playerbase continues to be dwarfed by that of its predecessor: Payday 3 saw a monthly average of around 844 Steam players in August – its highest monthly average since December last year – while Payday 2 attracted 15,508 players (the game’s lowest monthly average since December last year).
And now Starbreeze has confirmed yet more leadership changes as it continues its efforts to attract more players to Payday 3. “As we are nearing our first anniversary for Payday 3, and the start of our second year,” the studio wrote in a statement shared on social media, “we wanted to give a brief update on the Payday 3 leadership.”
“Going into year 2,” it continued, “[Miodrag Kovačevićas] will be stepping away from his former role as game director, and focusing his efforts as a designer elsewhere on the project. In the interim while researching and planning year 2, [Andreas Häll Penninger and Almir Listo] will be the creative force behind the upcoming updates we hope you keep enjoying and playing”.
Acknowledging his new duties in a separate post, Listo – Payday’s global brand director and head of community – wrote, “I have worked on the Payday franchise for the past 12 years together, and I am thrilled about the upcoming content we are preparing for you all! Thank you for your continued support – we salute you.”
On its release last year, Payday 3 struggled with matchmaking issues and unpopular online-only requirements, while its first major patch was hit with repeated delays, eventually arriving two months after the game’s troubled launch. Since then Starbreeze has released two additional major bug fixing patches under the name Operation Medic Bag, and introduced an early offline mode. Amid all this, the studio revealed it’s working on a Dungeons and Dragons game.
Eurogamer contributor Vikki Blake awarded Payday 3 three out of five stars last year, calling it a “shallow shooter that doesn’t offer anywhere near enough bang for your ill-gotten buck.”
