Today, Starbreeze shared a new teaser trailer for PAYDAY 3, the upcoming third installment in the cooperative first-person shooter heist game series.
The teaser trailer doesn’t really show anything of interest other than confirming that fans will get their first look at the game with a gameplay trailer coming this Summer. Starbreeze didn’t clarify when that would be, though it will likely coincide with the Summer Game Fest (taking place next month) or Gamescom (scheduled for August).
Originally confirmed in May 2016, PAYDAY 3’s development was inevitably affected by the serious financial troubles that hit Starbreeze. In late 2019, the Swedish company said it hoped the game would be released in 2022 or 2023, and it looks like the latter option is still in the cards.
In the Q1 2023 financial report released today, Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren confirmed that the marketing campaign for the new game would ramp up in the Summer, while the developers are dropping clues and hints in PAYDAY 2 to tease fans. PAYDAY 3 will be launched simultaneously on PC and consoles at some point this year, with DLC content already being prepared for distribution at regular intervals after launch. Starbreeze also boasted that over one million Steam users wishlisted the game on Valve’s PC store.
PAYDAY 3 will be published by Koch Media (now folded into Plaion), with a planned investment of over €50 million. There’s not a great deal of information on the game itself, with the exception of a few tidbits shared during the franchise’s tenth anniversary. Back then, we learned that the game would take place in an ‘enormous’ rendition of New York City, the Big Apple. The story is set many years following the events of PAYDAY 2 when the crew abandoned the life of crime. Needless to say, it’ll be interesting to see how they get roped back into heists.
Starbreeze also teased that the digital age is prominently featured in PAYDAY 3, with mass surveillance and the Dark Web playing some role in the tools available to players. Media are said to cover the crew’s exploits in the game, though it’s unclear what that will entail. Lastly, the original four PAYDAY characters (Dallas, Hoxton, Chains, and Wolf) are set to return for this new installment.
While PAYDAY 3 is at the very core of Starbreeze’s strategy, the Swedish company is now also developing other unannounced games due to launch in 2025 and 2027, respectively.
