Payday 3 devs finally clear air about battle pass’ inclusion in the game

Payday 3 does not currently have a battle pass, and the game’s lead developers have no intention of adding one down the road.

Almir Listo and Andreas Häll Penninger of Starbreeze Entertainment went live on a Twitch stream on the morning of Sept. 29 to answer questions about the game in real time as they came in from fans, confirming this bit of information.

During the livestream, some fans got their hopes up after Penninger referenced the Season Pass in Payday 3. Like most games, a Season Pass refers to the first year of DLC content, where purchasing the Season Pass at the time of the game’s release means you get year one DLC for “free.” A viewer in the Twitch seemingly didn’t know that a Season Pass is different from a battle pass, and began commenting to share their excitement.

Of course, the game of telephone in the comment sections quickly got out of hand, and within a minute the developers were having to backtrack and reiterate that they are not planning a battle pass for Payday 3. Initially at 23:14 in the stream, Listo mentioned seeing a comment that mistook Season Pass for battle pass, and he quickly explained the difference while also stating that they are not planning a battle pass.

After Listo cleared things up, another viewer seemed to only hear the words “battle pass,” and actually begged the team to not add a battle pass, forcing Listo to reiterate that the team had no plans of doing so.

While most of the attention from Payday 3 fans has been focused on server issues and matchmaking menu shortcomings, people were curious if and when Payday 3 would be receiving a battle pass, as they are apparently an absolute steadfast requirement for all games ever now. The fanbase seemed to be more worried as opposed to hopeful, and we have to say that we’re in the exact same boat. We’re thrilled to hear that Payday 3 has no plans for a battle pass.

Battle passes can be a great addition to games that they make sense for, like battle royales. This is because most battle royale games, like Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Warzone, are free to play. When a game is free, shelling out $10 per season to unlock cosmetics doesn’t feel unreasonable.

But when a game requires a purchase to play in the first place, a battle pass just feels plain greedy, as developers are asking for an extra $10 every month or two on a game that players already bought.