The Engine Upgrade: How Starbreeze is Redefining the Payday Legacy
In a strategic move designed to sharpen its focus on the future of the franchise, Starbreeze has recently handed the reins of Payday 2 development over to Sidetrack Games. This pivot allows the studio to dedicate its full energy to tackling the challenges facing Payday 3, setting the stage for a major overhaul that promises significant technical improvements for the beloved shooter.
This isn’t just a change of address; it’s a massive technical upgrade. The engine update is set to bring Payday 2 into a new era by porting it to a 64-bit architecture. This crucial shift is designed to eliminate the persistent out-of-memory crashes that plagued the game over the years, ensuring a smoother and more stable experience for players.
Beyond stability, the upgrade introduces DirectX 11 rendering capabilities. While this change won’t magically enhance the visuals, it offers a substantial performance boost by utilizing significantly less VRAM. This means Payday 2 will run much better on lower-end hardware, making high-quality gameplay more accessible to a wider audience.
The efficiency gains extend to the installation itself. Starbreeze has managed to drastically reduce the game’s size, cutting the install size by more than half, shrinking it from 86GB down to a manageable 32GB.
Of course, major technical overhauls always invite some scrutiny from the modding community. As anticipated, there will be inevitable friction. Sidetrack Games has proactively addressed this by encouraging mod makers to repair what can be repaired during the beta testing phase for the engine upgrade, promising support for new file formats as they emerge.
To give the community a chance to test these exciting changes before final release, an open beta is planned. Enthusiasts interested in experiencing the engine overhaul firsthand can sign up for the test running from June 30th through the end of July. Details on accessing this beta will be made available shortly.
While Payday 2 continues to thrive on Steam, the focus remains squarely on the next chapter. With Starbreeze exploring exciting new avenues—including crossovers with titles like PUBG and Roblox, alongside the introduction of peer-to-peer support—the spotlight is firmly fixed on making Payday 3 a successful and ambitious endeavor.
Credit: PC Gamer
