Payday 3 has had a rather rocky start, with server issues plaguing its launch leaving many unable to play the always-online heist shooter. Now, another rock has made its way onto that already bumpy road, with developer Starbreeze announcing it has chosen to delay its upcoming patch.

This patch was initially meant to be released yesterday, 5th October, and address "200+ QoL-improvements for all platforms". However, the developer has pushed it back until an unspecified time in mid-October. This, the Payday 3 team has said, is to "ensure its stability".

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"The patch needs some changes that would require us to go through console certification again," Starbreeze explained. In a follow up post, the team confirmed that this will mean the game's "PS5 bonus content will remain unredeemable until this patch is ready".

The Payday 3 developer previously announced its plans to split this patch into two. Earlier this week, Starbreeze said it would address "some fixes" this week and "the rest" would arrive "separately in the near future".

It is currently unclear if the developer still plans to release its updates in two parts, or if the recent delay will see a more comprehensive update arriving as one.

Additionally, there will be more server maintenance taking place. "Ideally this will not be noticeable, but we still want to give you a heads up of our maintenance window of 8am-11am CEST on the 6th and 10th of October," the team shared, before thanking players for "sticking with us!"

And yes, this means that the PS5 bonus content will remain unredeemable until this patch is ready.

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On Monday, Starbreeze announced that Payday 3's matchmaking issues had been fixed, and promised it would now "intensify" Payday 3's commercial activities, having put these on pause as it tried to sort out those matchmaking issues.

So, perhaps unsurprisingly, reaction to this latest setback for Payday 3 has been rather unforgiving. Many replies have said the game is simply no fun, while others have dubbed it a scam.

Meanwhile, over on Steam, it still has a "mostly negative" user review score.

We will also be needing to do some more server maintenance. Ideally this will not be noticeable, but we still want to give you a heads up of our maintenance window of 8am-11am CEST on the 6th and 10th of October. Thanks for sticking with us!

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Soon after Payday 3's release, the studio said it had been left "disappointed" by how its latest launch had gone.

At this time, Starbreeze placed a fair amount of the blame on a third-party matchmaking partner. This prompted the developer to state it will look into "evaluating a new partner for matchmaking services" in the future.

It also hopes to find a way to make "Payday 3 less dependent on online services" as part of its long-term plans for the series.