Payday 3 to go offline temporarily as Starbreeze work to make it "less dependent on online"

You may have read that always-online crime caper Payday 3 has had a disastrous launch, with players forced into long queues for the privilege of playing by themselves. The chaos continues this week, as developer Starbreeze have now elected to take the game wholly offline for several hours at a time across Tuesday 26th and Friday 28th September, while exploring ways to minimise the game's reliance on internet access.

"In order to improve server and matchmaking stability, we will make upgrades to the environment ahead of this weekend," reads an overnight social media post. "In order to perform these upgrades the service will be offline between 8AM and 11AM CEST Tuesday and Friday. We appreciate your patience."

In a longer post on Starbreeze's official website, the developers acknowledge that "Payday 3 matchmaking infrastructure has not performed as tested and expected," blaming an unspecified partner for the game's connection woes. "Matchmaking software encountered an unforeseen error, which made it unable to handle the massive influx of players," the statement reads. "The issue caused an unrecoverable situation for Starbreeze' third-party matchmaking partner.

"A new version of the matchmaking server software was gradually deployed across all regions leading to improved performance," it continues. "However, a software update made by the partner during late Sunday again introduced instability to the matchmaking infrastructure. The partner continues to work to improve and stabilize Payday 3's online systems.

"The issue in question did not manifest during Technical Betas or Early Access due to the specificity of rapid user influx and load-balancing. Starbreeze is currently evaluating all options, both short- and long-term. In the short-term, this means Starbreeze' focus is to ensure the player experience. In the long-term, this means evaluating a new partner for matchmaking services and making Payday 3 less dependent on online services."

Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren defiantly asserted in the statement that, notwithstanding the launch hiccups, the developers "are confident in our core product and the quality of Payday 3 - and all available metrics point to it. We have a lot of diligent and consistent work ahead of us to regain community trust, but we will work hard to do it."

According to Alice Bee's Payday 3 review, the game's faults extend from matchmaking troubles to a skill gating system that "makes it harder to succeed unless you've already played quite a lot, which works against welcoming new players." She did however find the overall package to be an enjoyable one. Have you been able to find a game yourself, and if so, what do you reckon?