Payday 3’s development team is “expanding” as Starbreeze goes all-in on its main IP, CEO Adolf Kristjansson has explained. Last month, the developer announced the cancellation of Project Baxter, a co-op game vying to become another major pillar of its business and reportedly set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe.
Payday 3’s launch placed it firmly in the same space as many beleaguered live service game sequels that failed to capture the magic of their predecessor. Despite disappointing player counts, Starbreeze didn’t give up on its heist-themed co-op shooter and is now seemingly ready to dedicate even more resources to it.
Payday 3’s Team “expanding,” Payday 2’s Long-Term Success “secured”
“The PAYDAY 3 team is expanding and building a more consistent, scalable live-engagement model,” Kristjansson said in the company’s interim Q3 2025 financial report.
“We continue to improve gameplay, onboarding, and tech stack, while developing new content to engage and re-engage our players. Our goal remains clear — to deliver evolving PAYDAY experiences that feel rewarding, dynamic, and more connected than ever before, across all traditional, and emerging platforms.”
Through Starbreeze’s partnership with Sidetrack Games, the company also “secured” the “long-term success” of Payday 2, which continues to prove far more popular than the third entry in the series.
Sidetrack games has “deep roots in the PAYDAY community and extensive knowledge of the franchise and its game engine,” which allows Starbreeze’s “internal teams to fully dedicate their focus to PAYDAY 3 and beyond.”
Although the company also announced its exit from third-party publishing, it will still focus on “a few strategic partnerships” that see it aiming “to expand into new platforms such as UEFN and Roblox, to empower the creators of tomorrow, and offer PAYDAY experiences tailored for current and wider audiences.”
Whether or not Starbreeze’s plan to go all-in on Payday will pay off in the long run remains to be seen. If you’re a fan of it heist-themed co-op shooters, though, it sure sounds like there’ll be plenty to do for at least a while.
For the latest gaming news, follow GameWatcher on BlueSky, check out our videos on YouTube. We sometimes include affiliate links in our posts, which grants us a small commission, thank you. Please support independent Games Media. ❤️
