Payday: Aces High marks a significant bet that virtual reality can rescue a franchise in crisis. Fast Travel Games revealed the upcoming VR co-op heist game during the VR Games Showcase, with the game slated to launch on Meta Quest and SteamVR in 2026.
The announcement arrives at a moment when Starbreeze Entertainment desperately needs a win. As the first new game in the series since the disappointing launch of Payday 3, Payday: Aces High will certainly face a high level of scrutiny at launch. The reason for that scrutiny is blunt: Payday 3 flopped in ways that have become difficult to ignore.
At its peak in September 2023, Payday 3 drew considerable enthusiasm. The game achieved an all-time peak of 77,938 concurrent players on launch day. What came next was a collapse. Payday 3 faced problems since its release in September 2023, with the FPS game criticised for its unstable or inaccessible servers. Beyond the technical troubles, fans expressed disappointment with Payday 3 due to its lack of content and basic features like in-game voice chat. The damage proved irreversible.
Today, the numbers tell the story of a franchise in disrepair. The concurrent player count of Payday 2, which came out in 2013, is much higher than that of the more recent Payday 3. A decade-old game consistently attracts more active players than its sequel. That comparison stings.
Payday: Aces High is a four-player co-op heist game where players work together to steal from the rich, with the crew made up of the Ace of Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, and Spades. Starbreeze Entertainment CEO Adolf Kristjansson argues that the game is "not just an adaptation" but a "true Payday game built from the ground up for this medium".
The studio developing it carries real experience. Fast Travel Games is a VR exclusive game developer and publisher founded by industry leading veterans and behind acclaimed titles such as Apex Construct and Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife. However, the team has faced recent headwinds. Fast Travel Games attributed recent layoffs affecting 30 roles to its various new releases underperforming throughout 2024, with reductions primarily affecting its publishing, administration, and marketing teams.
Whether a VR game can revive a main-line franchise remains an open question. While it is unlikely that a new VR game will match Payday 2's numbers, Fast Travel Games does have a chance to help Starbreeze rehabilitate the franchise and make a co-op shooter that people like more than the latest mainline Payday title. For a franchise that has lost its way, Aces High represents a last chance to prove the Payday name still means something.