Payday 3 will have an always online connection
Upcoming co-op heist shooter Payday 3 will have an always online connection, it has been revealed.
Developed by Starbreeze Studios and Overkill Software, Payday 3 has been 10 years in the making with Payday 2 being released in 2013, not including the PS4 and Xbox One release in 2015 or the Nintendo Switch release in 2018.
During a recent livestream, Starbreeze community manager Almir Listo said: “You’ll be able to play by yourself, but I do believe that you’ll have to have a connection in order to play because it’s made in Unreal Engine, it’s using cross-progression, crossplay, I do believe you’ll need to be online to play.”
Those words are an interesting choice from Listo. I get that an online connection will be required for online play. However, even if you’re playing single-player offline, progress can still be saved on the platform and that data can be uploaded when an online connection is established.
What’s more, as far as I am aware, the Unreal Engine does not require an always online connection either. Oh, and data can be saved offline from Payday 2, a 10-year-old game.
I understand that most people are online, but the issue with games that require an always-online connection, it means that even if you buy a physical copy of the game, if there’s no connection for whatever reason, the game is useless to the customer, it doesn’t do video game preservation any favours. This is a trend that I hope dies away someday.
Payday 3 will be released for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on 24 September 2023. It will also launch day one on Xbox Game Pass.
Featured Image Credit: Starbreeze Studios/Overkill Software