Payday 3’s director has been demoted following the game’s troubled first year

Payday 3’s director is “stepping away” from his position following the game’s troubled first year.

In a bid to turn the sequel’s fortunes around, on Wednesday Starbreeze confirmed new interim leadership for Payday 3’s second year of content.

Former game director Miodrag Kovačević is now serving as a senior game designer on the project, according to his LinkedIn profile, while Andreas Häll Penninger and Almir Listo will be “the creative force behind the upcoming updates”.

Penninger was a lead producer on Payday 3 and a producer on its predecessor, while Listo is global brand director and head of community for the series.

“Going into year 2, Mio will be stepping away from his former role as Game Director and focusing his efforts as a designer elsewhere in the project,” Starbreeze said in a statement posted on X.

“In the interim while researching and planning year 2, Andreas and Almir will be the creative force behind the upcoming updates we hope you keep enjoying and playing.”

Heisters, @PAYDAD_ and I have worked on the PAYDAY franchise for the past 12 years together, and I am thrilled about the upcoming content we are preparing for you all! 👊😎

Thank you for your continued support – we salute you. https://t.co/c08Z5J4Lxs

— Almir Listo (@almirlisto) September 11, 2024

Payday 3 has significantly underperformed since its release last September for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, contributing to the removal of former Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren in March.

Outside of its launch period, the game’s Steam player base has been dwarfed by Payday 2’s. According to independent Steam tracking service SteamDB, in the last 24 hours, Payday 2 has enjoyed a peak concurrent player count of 14,601. In contrast, Payday 3 achieved a peak concurrent player count of 771.