Payday 3 offline mode potentially scrapped as Starbreeze calls it ‘infeasible’ for the game’s future

Developer Starbreeze has dealt Payday 3’s beleaguered life cycle another blow by shelving the long-promised offline mode, a feature that was teased as a part of the game’s recovery road map nearly 1.5 years ago.

Payday 3 launched in September 2023 to a rocky reception for its buggy servers, sparse content, and always-online requirement, failing to capture the charm of its predecessor, Payday 2, which continues to thrive with a daily average of 30,000 concurrent users compared to Payday 3’s average concurrent count of 2000 players on Steam.

Payday 3’s offline mode was first pledged back in February 2024 as part of Operation Medic Bag, a step taken by the studio to overhaul the game’s progression system, matchmaking, and overall stability following its bumpy launch. 

It’s been nearly 20 months since the announcement of Operation Medic Bag. Now, the Swedish developer has deemed offline implementation unviable amid steps to bolster the game’s live service enhancements. 

During a recent anniversary livestream titled “Our Future” on October 2, General Manager Jonas Skantz pulled the cat out of the bag when a community manager, Elisabeth Elvestad, asked, “What’s going on with offline mode for Payday 3?”

Skantz, who joined Starbreeze in August 2025 after a few stints at other studios, including EA, said:

I know that the team had good intentions with offline mode, definitely. And they have been trying to kind of make it happen, but I think we have to face the reality that it is not feasible for where we are going with the game.

So, first of all, we have a finite amount of people. We want to make sure that they work on the most valuable things for the game. And these are the things that we talk about – progression, core loops, and so on.

But more importantly, we today have an update model where it takes us weeks to get a client update out.

To put it simply, Starbreeze claims offline support implementation would clash with Starbreeze’s new backend-driven update system, which allows the studio to push quick fixes and integrate player feedback.

While Skantz stopped short of fully declaring offline mode canceled, it’s pretty clear that Payday 3’s offline mode has been indefinitely postponed.