Starbreeze Entertainment recently revealed plans to discontinue Project Baxter, a Dungeons & Dragons-themed initiative unveiled in 2023, shifting focus entirely to its core Payday series. This decision led to the termination of 44 staff members. Simultaneously, during a commemorative broadcast marking Payday 3’s second-year milestone, studio executives Jonas Skantz and Elisabeth Elvestad stunned fans by announcing that the long-awaited offline functionality has been permanently scrapped.

The event, streamed live on the Payday Twitch channel, aimed to outline the game’s roadmap. Elvestad initiated the discussion by directly addressing the community’s top concern: “What’s the status of Payday 3’s offline mode?”

“I assumed we were allies here,” Skantz responded humorously before delivering unwelcome news. “Let’s address offline functionality. The team genuinely aimed to deliver it, but current priorities make this unachievable. Our limited workforce must concentrate on critical improvements like progression systems and gameplay loops. Additionally, our current update framework requires weeks to deploy patches across multiple platforms. To enhance responsiveness, we’re transitioning to backend-driven adjustments, enabling real-time tuning without lengthy certification delays. While we’re improving connectivity, these structural changes make offline support impractical.”

This explanation clashes with Starbreeze’s simultaneous announcement of expanding Payday 3’s development team, as Skantz emphasized they’re “effectively doubling our workforce to execute forthcoming initiatives.” For players awaiting offline access, this contradiction fuels frustration. Though Project Baxter’s team may have specialized expertise, the studio’s selective bandwidth constraints appear inconsistent.

It’s worth noting that Payday 3’s core challenges extend beyond connectivity. Its sparse content library compared to Payday 2’s extensive offerings remains a critical weakness. Starbreeze must innovate beyond familiar heists to incentivize player migration between installments.

An offline mode might eventually emerge during Payday 3’s end-of-life phase, but this remains optimistic speculation. Given the community’s vocal disillusionment, continued engagement with the title isn’t guaranteed, even if such features materialize later.

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