Get ready for Payday 3, as the closed beta is set to begin next week, which will allow you to take on the role of a bank robber in this third installment in the heist series. But, it’s not good news for everyone.

Only on Xbox and PC, for some reason

If you have a PS5 and were hoping to try Payday 3 before it releases on September 21, well it turns out it’s not happening for the Sony console.

A post over on the official Twitter page announces the closed beta will begin on August 2 and go through until August 7. However, it only mentions that Xbox Series X|S and Steam users will be able to sign up for a chance to play the game.

You can find more details on the Payday website, but there’s no mention of the trial coming to PlayStation at all. It also doesn’t look as though the developer or publisher has given a reason as to why it’s not coming to PS5.

A recent press releases confirms what you’ll be able to experience in the beta. If you do manage to sign up for it, the “iconic clown-masked characters that made the Payday franchise infamous are all playable, each with its own unique skillset.”

All difficulties will be available, but weapon levels will be capped at eight, while infamy levels will be capped at 22. You’ll get the chance to take on one heist, and it’ll be up to you whether you choose to take on the mission more stealthily.

We’ve already seen a recent stealth teaser, suggesting that robberies don’t necessarily have to be completed guns blazing.

It seems a bit weird that the closed beta for Payday 3 isn’t coming to PS5, given that the actual game is being released on the system. A lot of PlayStation owners are understandably going to be ticked off at not being given the chance to try before they buy.

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For all the heist fans out there, a new trailer for Payday 3 has just dropped, giving players a sweet taste of the stealth mechanics to come.

Payday 3 looks to offer more stealthy options

While the Payday games are all about breaking into banks and robbing the place blind, this latest trailer for the third entry looks like it might be putting more emphasis on stealth mechanics, or at least including it as a more substantial offer.

The teaser shows the criminals advancing on guards quietly, taking them out through choke holds and gas grenades as they creep around the facility making little sound.

Previous games didn’t allow for such careful planning, but this trailer suggests you and your gang may be able to go into a job with a certain element of clandestine care.

Payday 3 will also not be an Xbox exclusive. The game will be available on PS5 as well as on PC through Steam and Epic Games Store.

It’s been nearly 10 years since Payday 2 came out, which itself came just two years after the original, so fans have been waiting a good while for a new entry to finally emerge.

Payday 3 will be coming to PC and current-gen consoles on September 21. You can pre-order the game, either the standard version or one of the special editions, today.

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Is Payday 3 coming out on PS5, or is it an Xbox exclusive? Developed by Overkill Software and Starbreeze Studios, Payday 3 is the much-anticipated third installment in the heist-based FPS series and is a direct sequel to Payday 2. At the end of that game, the heisters decide to part ways, but they have decided to come back. It’s taken a long time for Payday 3 to be fully developed, with Overkill Software announcing the game all the way back in May 2016. Fortunately, the game is already set to release on September 21, 2023, so fans won’t need to wait too much longer to get their hands on it. Here’s all you need to know about whether or not there’s a Payday 3 PS5 release date.

Is Payday 3 coming out on PS5?

Yes, Payday 3 is coming out on PS5.

As detailed in the FAQ on the game’s official website, Payday 3 will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It will cost $39.99 at launch and can be pre-ordered on all these platforms at various retailers and storefronts.

Is Payday 3 an Xbox exclusive?

No, Payday 3 is not an Xbox exclusive.

Perhaps some of the confusion comes from Payday 3 gameplay being featured during the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase. But it’s become clear that the game will be multiplatform. Payday 3 will support crossplay and cross-progression across all platforms, so that you can form a party easily.

The game’s synopsis reads:

“The PAYDAY Gang once struck fear into the hearts of law enforcement and citizenry all across the United States, with some reports accusing them of crimes as far away as Russia. The seemingly unstoppable criminals were responsible for a spree of audacious heists, made even more remarkable by the fact that the gang was never caught.

Then, one day, the robberies that shook the world suddenly ceased. The PAYDAY Gang seemed to vanish off the face of the Earth. This peaceful reprieve has lasted years… But peacetime never lasts forever.”

For more Payday 3 updates, check out whether the original Payday crew will be in the game.

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The upcoming Payday 3 will mark the return of the original Payday crew, and will once again take place in the city of New York. Developer Overkill Software shared new details about the heist simulator in a recent 10th-anniversary stream. In addition to revealing some concept art, the developers announced that the game will also focus on the gang’s work “in the digital age” and feature new gadgets, as well as references to mass surveillance and cryptocurrencies.

According to Overkill Software, Payday 3 will take place “several years” after the events of Payday 2. The four crew members of the original gang from Payday—Dallas, Hoxton, Chains, and Wolf—are forced out of retirement against their own wishes, though the reason why is yet unknown. What we do know is that the game’s story will also follow the gang’s resurgence in status, including how the media’s portrayal of the crew will affect the world’s narrative.

Overkill Software is also updating Payday 3 for the modern era, most reflected in the game’s gadgets and companies. The world has evolved since Payday 2 released in 2013, and so have the tools at the crew’s disposal. In addition to new gadgets, software giants, cryptocurrencies, mass surveillance, and the Dark Web will also play a role in the game’s story and gameplay. Concept art also shows that the game will be set “in the heart” of New York. Maps will also reflect this and will showcase big “living and breathing” urban environments that react to whatever the player is doing.

Promisingly, Overkill Software is reportedly using Unreal Engine 4 to develop the game. Back in 2020, the company announced that it would switch development from the Diesel Engine mid-production which raised quite a few eyebrows. However, this change will apparently help keep console and PC versions of Payday 3 in line with each other, making cross-play easier to develop.

You can check out the official Payday 10th anniversary stream below:

Payday 3 doesn’t yet have a release date.

[Source: YouTube via ResetEra]

The post Payday 3 Will Take Place in New York, Original Crew To Return appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Payday 3 remains in development at Overkill. While the title is unlikely to launch until at least 2022, the developer has offered a new production update. Payday 3 will no longer run on the Diesel Engine; development is instead moving over to Unreal Engine.

Such news came to the fore over the weekend, courtesy of the following post from the official Payday Twitter account:

ACCESS: PAYDAY TWITTER MAN
MEMBER COUNT: 100,000

REQUEST RECEIVED, ACCESSING CRIMENET…

CONNECTING…

ONLINE.

TIME: 13:37

STATUS PAYDAY 3

CONFIRMED
DESIGN PHASE
RELEASE DATE TBA
UNREAL ENGINE pic.twitter.com/fqnWYEaCSg

— PAYDAY 2 (@PAYDAYGame) October 3, 2020

The post doesn’t offer too much in the way of concrete details about how things are progressing with Payday 3 aside from confirming it is still in development. But at least it’s unleashed what seems to be the game’s first screenshot (seen in the header image above), which is now also the Payday Twitter account’s profile image. That development is shifting to Unreal Engine seems worthy of note as well. After all, the Diesel Engine fueled both 2011’s Payday: The Heist and 2013’s Payday 2. How such a change will affect the new entry’s production going forward currently remains to be seen.

Unfortunately, this is not the only shake-up with regards to Payday 3’s creation. A wide variety of troubles at publisher Starbreeze have long beset the project’s development. It appears as though things are looking up, however. Earlier in the year, Starbreeze sought 250 million SEK ($26.8 million USD) in funds due to issues it faced in securing a publisher for Payday 3 at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Evidently, Starbreeze managed to secure enough funding to proceed with the title’s development and make drastic changes in the process.

In October 2019, Starbreeze shared plans to release Payday 3 between 2022 to 2023. Whether or not this release window is still in place remains a mystery, as the tweet above simply says “Release date TBA.”

[Source: Payday Game on Twitter via PC Gamer]

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Starbreeze hasn’t been having a good few years. Between the disaster that was Overkill’s The Walking Dead, to the lack of any other projects hitting their mark, nothing seems to have gone right for the studio. Recently it did have one bright spot to announce: Payday 2 would begin to receive updates again, with new campaigns, characters, and weapons being added to the game. At least, until today, when it announced that only the PC version will be getting any future updates in a timely fashion. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One version of the game will both be getting update 1.5, but after that, the future status of the console versions is up in the air.

The new Border Crossing Heist, which is the first level of the new Winds of Change campaign launched on PC back on November 7th, 2019, will not be making its way to consoles. Additionally, Overkill said the following heists will not be making their way to the PlayStation 4 version, despite having come out for the PC version already:

• Shacklethorne Auction Heist
• Reservoir Dogs Heist
• Hells Island Heist
• No Mercy Heist
• The White House Heist

In addition, the Safe House feature, which sees players customizing a home base that occasionally gets raided by the cops, will also not be making its way to the PlayStation 4. The reason for both the Safe House feature and the missing heists, according to Overkill, is because they “have too high requirements in terms of optimization to be viable to port at this time.” Overkill did note that they’re hoping to make the masks and weapons that came with the heists available to the console version but noted that the ones that involved licensing are likely to not happen.

The good news is that this is at least slightly better than the Nintendo Switch version of the game, which Overkill said will be getting no current updates at all, nor will it be likely to get any ever again.

Overkill is currently working on Payday 3, which they expect to be available sometime between 2022 and 2023. In the update post, Overkill claims this same problem of delayed and canceled additions will not plague the next game.

[source: Overkill]

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Embattled Swedish publisher Starbreeze has tasked Overkill Software with resurrecting Payday 2 following a year of financial turmoil that led to development being ceased. The company has plans to offer free and paid updates going forward.

“As many of you may or may not know, our company has gone through something of a purgatory fire in the past year,” CEO Mikael Nermark said in a statement. “Because of this, we’re announcing a few Payday 2 changes today.”

An overview of the changes is as follows:

• Last year Payday 2 development was stopped. Having reconsidered our future, I’ve asked the OVERKILL crew to resume production on Payday 2. The game will have more updates going forward, both paid and free.

• The team is working hard on the first new update, I will let the team present it soon.

• We’re re-introducing the DLC smörgåsbord again. An à la carte option of previous legacy content DLCs will be made available again starting today!

• As a part of our journey into the future, we’ll be changing the Payday 2: Ultimate Edition to Payday 2: Legacy Collection starting later today. We want to be able to move forward together with all of you in our community, and to be able to do this we need to retire the promise of free future content based on old assumptions.

• New curated bundles on existing content will be created to give great offers to new and returning players.

“In December of 2018, Starbreeze entered into ‘reconstruction,’ a procedure similar to the US version of Chapter 11,” Nermark continued. “On December 3rd, we only had projected cash reserves to run the company until mid-January 2019. This was how serious the situation had become. Since then we’ve been able, through extremely hard work and commitment by all of our employees, been able to stay afloat, clean up our business and start thinking about our future and the future of Payday.”

In case you missed last week’s news, Payday 3 is scheduled for release between 2022-23.

[Source: Overkill Software]

The post Troubled Publisher Starbreeze Is Resurrecting Payday 2 and Has Plans for Free and Paid Updates appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

It appears that the long-delayed console port of Overkill’s The Walking Dead has officially (and quietly) been canceled. Word of the cancellation started spreading after emails supposedly from Sony began making the rounds to those who preordered. This comes after the trouble game was delayed indefinitely back in January 2019.

As of right now, this news is specifically concerning the PlayStation 4 release, but it stands to reason that the Xbox One release would be canceled, as well. However, neither Sony nor Starbreeze have yet to make an official announcement on this. Hopefully, we’ll get more clear information on this whole situation soon.

This news shouldn’t necessarily be surprising, as publisher Starbreeze has been in trouble from the moment Overkill’s The Walking Dead released on PC. It was essentially dead on arrival, with low initial sales causing Starbreeze to reassess its costs. However, things only got worse from there. Not only did Starbreeze file for reconstruction, CEO Bo Andersson also stepped down. Starbreeze’s offices were later raided over insider trading suspicions.

It definitely seems that Overkill’s The Walking Dead has been troubled from the start. Following the disastrous launch, reports came out about the rocky development history of this game. In addition, it appears that Starbreeze has been on shaky ground for years now, with numerous instances of ill-advised spending.

It’s currently unknown what will ultimately happen with Starbreeze. The publisher recently sold the rights to the upcoming System Shock 3 back to OtherSide Entertainment. The (potential) cancellation of this console port doesn’t bode well for the company, either, though it does have the much more successful Payday franchise on its hands.

[Source: TrueAchievements]

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It’s not a secret to say that Overkill’s The Walking Dead was a failure. From middling reviews to even worse sales, it was of little surprise when the console release of this game was delayed indefinitely. However, now the question remains, what exactly went wrong for publisher Starbreeze. Depending on who you ask, you’ll get some vastly different answers.

The former CEO of Starbreeze shockingly believes the developers are at least partly to blame for the current disaster the company finds itself in. The developers, on the other hand, have a different story. Eurogamer spoke with many of the developers, and one thing was clear: many of them knew this was a troubled project from early on.

Following his departure from Starbreeze, former CEO Bo Andersson sent an email that, among other things, claims the supposed low quality in Overkill’s The Walking Dead was a result of developers not “willing to put in the extra care.”

Personally though I lost all my money, my family in divorce and my kids custody through the toil over the last 2-3 years working 100 hour weeks for Starbreeze and keeping you devs paid and in the game. With less and less developers willing to put in the extra care in a product it clearly limits the possible result of enough quality in time. This is a new era and I did not leave the old one and adapt in time – my fault. Its ok—its new times.

It was a shocking dismissal of a team that seemed to continually lose faith in their game. The project was envisioned as an ambitious, ever-changing world (a la Destiny). But as development progressed, it became clear that the Valhalla engine (which Starbreeze purchased in 2015), was not equipped for a game of this scale. As a result, management decided to switch to Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. The only problem was that very few on the team had experience with Unreal, and the game was set to be shipped in a little more than a year. As one developer put it, “we were using tutorials to try and make a game.”

“Everyone knew it was going to tank,” a different developer told Eurogamer. Switching engines also meant that the entire game essentially had to restart from scratch. Despite what Andersson claimed, it appears that the developers put as much weight behind this seemingly doomed project as they could. Long nights and 100-hour weeks became increasingly common. Sadly, none of it would help a game that seemed doomed to fail.

The disastrous launch of Overkill’s The Walking Dead has led to a number of changes at Starbreeze. The company recently filed for reconstruction, and it also found itself under criminal investigation. The future is very much in limbo for Starbreeze, and with games like Psychonauts 2 and System Shock 3 on the way, one can only hope it finds its footing.

[Source: Eurogamer]

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It appears that the state of Starbreeze is worse than people may have originally thought. As a result of low sales of Overkill’s The Walking Dead, the Swedish company has filed for reconstruction. In addition, CEO Bo Andersson will be stepping down from both his position and the Board of Directors. Fellow Board of Directors member Kristofer Arwin is also stepping down, as well. This move means that Starbreeze’s financial targets for Q4 2018 and 2020 are no longer applicable.

The bad news for Starbreeze began ever since Overkill’s The Walking Dead released on PC in November 2018. It faced low sales right from the start, forcing Starbreeze to review costs. A last-ditch price cut was offered, in an attempt to revive sales, but it appears that didn’t help matters. These low numbers led to severely reduced forecasted revenue, resulting in “a shortfall of cash” for January 2019.

The press release noted that the reconstruction will let operations “continue as usual,” which includes paying current employees. However, no payments can be made to suppliers for any goods or services provided prior to the announcement of the reconstruction.

While the future certainly doesn’t look bright, there is a chance that Starbreeze can find investors and pull through. Starbreeze has multiple projects in the works, but it is unknown if this move will have any impact on them. Console ports of Overkill’s The Walking Dead are currently slated for a February 2019 release. In addition, it was set to release both Psychonauts 2 and System Shock 3, though it should be noted that Starbreeze is only acting as publisher for both titles.

[Source: Starbreeze]

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