Payday 3 goes to New York and the plots are going digital

On a 10th anniversary stream, Payday 3 developers Overkill have given the latest look at Payday 3. The brief overview shows off some concept art and talks about the inspiration and frame for the upcoming co-op heist shooter.

Payday 3 will take place in New York, a city that Starbreeze wants to be "living" and "enormous." Payday 3 game director Erik Wonnevi said that their intent was for environments before heists to feel like living, normal reality, then drastically change as chaos brought on by your crime spree descends. As an example, Wonnevi shared a pair of heist environment concept art pieces—one from before it starts, the other during.

A concept image of environments from the upcoming game Payday 3 — (Image credit: Starbreeze)

The original four Payday characters are back, with Dallas, Hoxton, Chains and Wolf pushed out of retirement and back into a life of crime by old acquaintances. The world of heists they find is now inflected by modern problems: The media can cover the gang easily and sensationalize their exploits.

There's also the surveillance state, the dark web, and all manner of new gadget to use on ubiquitous smart tech. Wonnevi namedropped tech giants and cryptocurrency as hot button issues that'll come up in Payday 3's story.

Here are some quick character concepts.

A concept image of characters from the upcoming game Payday 3 — (Image credit: Starbreeze)

Payday 3 has had a pretty long development history, with its future in jeopardy due to financial troubles at publisher Starbreeze in 2019. Those troubles were resolved, and the game was back on track, by February of this year. In March, we heard that the new publishing partner was looking at a 2023 release.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.