Base game is a mess. Yet paid DLC still gets released?

[animal_PLANET]

Its really bad and sad to see when a publisher has such a miserable launch and dont even bother to address those issues. But still decide to release DLC barely 2 months out of the gate. That just shows you the mind set of this company right there. They could care less.

You know. Most good studios who care about their games and players. Who have had bad launches. Actually hold off on DLC and other projects until the current base game is fixed, but not Starbreeze. This is why they are such a terrible publisher. They already moved the team to Project Baxter, and are mainly focused on DLC now.

If SB listened to their fans during PD2's lifetime. Especially all the years talking about PD3 and leading up to it on what we want to see and expect. Than during all that time in Beta with player feedback. They wouldnt be in this mess but some how they managed to still release the game in this terrible state.

That is why I do not believe SB at all with this strike team announcement. They will fix basic things that need patching and than announce new DLC shortly after. I highly doubt anything productive will be done as they said it would be in February.

Or they will lie saying they are going to announce something bigger in the near future and say that the February improvements have been delayed. Further proving they are lying. They are so done as a company.

If you believe their previous statement of developing a strike team to listen to player feedback. You will be sorely mistaken.

[Undefined]

I don't disagree in spirit, but they did release road maps for DLC, so it shouldn't have been a surprise.

One of the red flags for me (and apparently not many others) is when a developer is offering pre-orders on DLC for a game that hasn't even been released. Not only is a shady practice, in general, but you should already know that the DLC was probably supposed to be part of the base game and that the base game will be lacking in content.

With that said, PD3 is so bad that they should make Syntax Error free. Silver/Gold can get another free DLC after the last planned DLC is released. Assuming PD3 will still be around by then, that is.

[Kasiornis]

I'm pretty sure they just have some sort of internal guidelines regarding these DLC's - "Release around [this] date. Price will be [that] one". And they just blindly follow it as if everything else is okay while in reality the game is burning, people are leaving, the amount of those who remain is too low to give them any meaningful sales.

Yet they behave like they don't care what will happen with game at all.
Ignorance, indiffirence, silence. It's actually baffling to witness, even the most arrogant devs these days are not that indifferent.

And they finally decided to save the game when it lost 99% of its max playerbase.
Just in time indeed.

[animal_PLANET]

Yea, I understand DLC was already in the roadmap, but that doesnt mean its final, or cant be adjusted.

A lot of games roadmaps change. But even in the state of release the DLC is still released and the publisher remains clueless. Begging for fans help.

Other studios would have tried to mitigate the issue right away. Address the main and important things first. yet SB ignores them. Releases DLC. Now has ~500 players daily. Good job there. Lol

[Kasiornis]

It reminds me of a meme from RDR2:

- I have a plan, Arthur
- What is your plan?
- To have a plan!

Well, they have a plan and follow it, completely disregarding the reality and ongoing situation. They are losing players rapidly due to tech state of the game.
The logical decision will be - start adressing the issues immediately while lowering the prices to lure as many new players as possible.

In reality they are sitting still for 4 months since the release and only when everything is almost lost - they SUDDENLY decided to start saving the game.
And they can, tbh. They can salvage it and bring some people back.
Because they have no other choice, without money they'll go down with the game.
But they can't sell the broken game either, so...

Yeah

[Undefined]

Yeah, I agree that they should've just released it for free considering the state of the game, the price of the DLC, and the community's current feelings towards the devs.

I'm just saying, though:

"You knew I was a snake before you took me in!"

[General T.Montana Tropic Thunder]

I will buy the first 200 dlcs.

[Mentally Unstable]

At this point, I think very few are buying their dlcs......there's not even enough concurrent players (at the time of this post) to register a player count in the steam community hub for this game. IIRC, it needs at least 300 concurrent players on steam for it to show up......which means lesser than 300 steam players globally are playing it at this moment.

Still, they have to release DLCs to discharge their liability towards those who bought silver and gold editions.

[Undefined]

Oprindeligt skrevet af 😑:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Undefined:

I don't disagree in spirit, but they did release road maps for DLC, so it shouldn't have been a surprise.

One of the red flags for me (and apparently not many others) is when a developer is offering pre-orders on DLC for a game that hasn't even been released. Not only is a shady practice, in general, but you should already know that the DLC was probably supposed to be part of the base game and that the base game will be lacking in content.

With that said, PD3 is so bad that they should make Syntax Error free. Silver/Gold can get another free DLC after the last planned DLC is released. Assuming PD3 will still be around by then, that is.

I don't see it surviving bro.

If people had higher standards than "just give us a lobby browser," I'd give it zero chance.

[RageMojo]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Undefined:

Oprindeligt skrevet af 😑:

I don't see it surviving bro.

If people had higher standards than "just give us a lobby browser," I'd give it zero chance.

Lobby browser wont save this game alone. Its only one of several mandatory items that could save this game. The game will never recover unless in addition to a crime net, they fix armor, fix how challenges work, reliable connections and offline, these are ALL required before this game could even dream of a come back.

Not to mention the clock and calendar are more important every year that passes, for situations like this. There are more and more games, so people are not as willing to go back as they were 10 years ago. In 2012 Steam had 400 new game releases. In 2022 it had 10,000.

Starbreeze also doesnt have the goodwill banked that devs like Cyberpunk did. No one with a brain trusts Starbreeze with how many failures they have produced. In fact can anyone tell me where i can pick up that overkill Walking Dead game? LOL!

[Kasiornis]

Oprindeligt skrevet af RageMojo:

In fact can anyone tell me where i can pick up that overkill Walking Dead game? LOL!

Want some FUN fact?
OTWD was in the development like 6 years, of them 5 were scrapped because abysmal team leadership. The final build was made literally in a year. It was rough as hell, buggy, yet...it was enjoyable. It oozed atmosphere, promoted teamplay and careful, skillfull plays in general. And thinking, as well.
It was genuinely enjoyable, despite all flaws. And it had A LOT of them.
The game could recover and live if it had a chance, but Kirkman pulled the plug and it died.

Now the joke is - Payday 3 sold like 10 times more. Was heavily anticipated by fans as part of popular franchise. It was 6 full(!) years in development and all the devs needed to do - is to take PD2 success formulae and upgrade it. Instead they made something completely different, flawed, unfun. They literally made a game worse than OTWD, which was made in a year, in an insane crunch.
And now Payday 3 is dying. And devs literally can't understand what needs to be done to save it.

That is the reason the game is beyond saving.
Not because the game itself is bad, it's okay, but not good either.
But because the dev team is so out of touch it hurts.

[RageMojo]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Kasiornis:

Oprindeligt skrevet af RageMojo:

In fact can anyone tell me where i can pick up that overkill Walking Dead game? LOL!

Want some FUN fact?
OTWD was in the development like 6 years, of them 5 were scrapped because abysmal team leadership. The final build was made literally in a year. It was rough as hell, buggy, yet...it was enjoyable. It oozed atmosphere, promoted teamplay and careful, skillfull plays in general. And thinking, as well.
It was genuinely enjoyable, despite all flaws. And it had A LOT of them.
The game could recover and live if it had a chance, but Kirkman pulled the plug and it died.

Now the joke is - Payday 3 sold like 10 times more. Was heavily anticipated by fans as part of popular franchise. It was 6 full(!) years in development and all the devs needed to do - is to take PD2 success formulae and upgrade it. Instead they made something completely different, flawed, unfun. They literally made a game worse than OTWD, which was made in a year, in an insane crunch.
And now Payday 3 is dying. And devs literally can't understand what needs to be done to save it.

That is the reason the game is beyond saving.
Not because the game itself is bad, it's okay, but not good either.
But because the dev team is so out of touch it hurts.

Games should be released ready to play, not require a bunch of promised fixes down the road. I am really sick and tired of that crap. "wE'lL rElEaSe iT lAtEr." Eff that. If i was Kirkman i would have pulled the plug too.

[animal_PLANET]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Kasiornis:

It was 6 full(!) years in development and all the devs needed to do - is to take PD2 success formulae and upgrade it.

PD3 wasnt in full production until the deal they signed with Koch Media for €50+ million. So PD3 was basically made in only 2 years and it really, really shows.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/starbreeze-signs-50m-payday-3-deal-with-koch-media

[Kasiornis]

Oprindeligt skrevet af RageMojo:

Games should be released ready to play, not require a bunch of promised fixes down the road. I am really sick and tired of that crap. "wE'lL rElEaSe iT lAtEr."

Can't agree more. And can't understand those who defend it either.
We paid full price here and now. And we want to play a game, here and now.
And we want it to be complete, polished and playable. Here and now.

Instead we are getting deafening silence from devs and some promises that some team of superheroes will fix the game somewhere in the future, while it dies right at this moment.
And we, for our money, got a buggy, unpolished and unfinished mess.
Without real hope to get something better.
Especially when the market is full of really good games like Baldur's Gate 3.

And there are still those who defend such flawed, shady practice.
Amazing.

Oprindeligt skrevet af animal_PLANET:

So PD3 was basically made in only 2 years and it really, really shows.

So, again, the game which was made in a year was better than the game they've made in two.
Goodness gracious...

[animal_PLANET]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Kasiornis:

Oprindeligt skrevet af RageMojo:

Games should be released ready to play, not require a bunch of promised fixes down the road. I am really sick and tired of that crap. "wE'lL rElEaSe iT lAtEr."

Can't agree more. And can't understand those who defend it either.
We paid full price here and now. And we want to play a game, here and now.
And we want it to be complete, polished and playable. Here and now.

Instead we are getting deafening silence from devs and some promises that some team of superheroes will fix the game somewhere in the future, while it dies right at this moment.
And we, for our money, got a buggy, unpolished and unfinished mess.
Without real hope to get something better.
Especially when the market is full of really good games like Baldur's Gate 3.

And there are still those who defend such flawed, shady practice.
Amazing.

Are GAAS ever really ever done though? I mean, thats the point of calling it a game as a service. It is continuously being serviced to fix broken promises. However, this game never changed for the better and a total flop all around.

This is why I stay away from all games that say they are a live service game. When you also have a publisher like Starbreeze with such incompetence. You get a game like this.

[RageMojo]

Oprindeligt skrevet af animal_PLANET:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Kasiornis:

Can't agree more. And can't understand those who defend it either.
We paid full price here and now. And we want to play a game, here and now.
And we want it to be complete, polished and playable. Here and now.

Instead we are getting deafening silence from devs and some promises that some team of superheroes will fix the game somewhere in the future, while it dies right at this moment.
And we, for our money, got a buggy, unpolished and unfinished mess.
Without real hope to get something better.
Especially when the market is full of really good games like Baldur's Gate 3.

And there are still those who defend such flawed, shady practice.
Amazing.

Are GAAS ever really ever done though? I mean, thats the point of calling it a game as a service. It is continuously being serviced to fix broken promises. However, this game never changed for the better and a total flop all around.

This is why I stay away from all games that say they are a live service game. When you also have a publisher like Starbreeze with such incompetence. You get a game like this.

No, no, no. GAAS are supposed to release new fun content, not fix things that should have been sorted out before launch.

Fixes come up even under best circumstances sometimes, but companies like this just use it as a flat excuse for everything. Updates are not a license to release broken crap.