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Starbreeze has one thing new cooking on the Payday entrance and, effectively, it is a VR recreation—Payday: Aces Excessive, a co-op heist recreation just like the others within the collection, however “constructed particularly for digital actuality, bringing the planning, teamwork and signature chaos of a Payday heist to a completely immersive format.”
This one, nevertheless, is being developed by Quick Journey Video games, a VR studio whose earlier releases embrace Cities: VR, Vampire: The Masquerade: Justice, the confusion-causing Apex Assemble, and the Stellaris VR spinoff Ghost Sign. As much as 4 individuals can partake in co-op multiplayer motion and, presumably as a result of discovering 4 individuals with VR headsets generally is a problem unto itself, singleplayer can also be supported.
“Bringing the enduring Payday universe to VR has been greater than a milestone for our studio—it has been a real privilege,” Quick Journey CEO Oskar Burman mentioned. “Working with an IP cherished by tens of millions has been unbelievable, and watching our staff seize that magic in a completely fledged VR expertise has been actually inspiring.”
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This would possibly not be Starbreeze’s first foray into the world of VR. A VR model of Payday 2 dropped in 2018 and it is apparently fairly alright, however even earlier than that the studio had excessive hopes for the sector. In 2015 it introduced its personal VR headset known as StarVR, and even launched a VR arcade to assist it, though growth of the headset was placed on maintain in 2018. Starbreeze mentioned this newest transfer is a part of its technique to “increase Payday by way of chosen licensing partnerships and new leisure codecs.”
“Quick Journey Video games is a globally revered VR studio with over a decade of VR expertise,” Starbreeze CEO Adolf Kristjansson mentioned. “Beneath their management, Aces Excessive is not only an adaptation. It’s a true Payday recreation constructed from the bottom up for this medium.”
Perhaps so—it appears to be like the half, as I mentioned—however all of that is occurring beneath a really darkish cloud hanging over Starbreeze. Payday 3 stays a multitude and at this level, effectively over two years after launch, it is arduous to think about any type of significant turnaround occurring, particularly whereas the a lot older Payday 2 remains to be reliably chugging alongside. Starbreeze itself, in the meantime, has imposed two rounds of layoffs over the previous six months and cancelled an anticipated co-op D&D recreation it had introduced in 2023.
And even when Payday: Aces Excessive is “good” by no matter slippery metric you employ to outline the time period, how a lot impression it can have on the fates of the franchise and the studio is a giant query. The Murderer’s Creed VR recreation Nexus, as an example, is effectively regarded by gamers however did not promote in addition to writer Ubisoft had hoped—in reality, it satisfied Ubisoft to again off on VR growth. Meta additionally just lately closed three VR studios as a part of its large metaversal walkback, an amusing but additionally in some methods alarming transfer from an organization that actually renamed itself after the factor it is now slowly backing away from. (Perhaps issues will work out higher with AI.)
Anyway, we’ll see the way it all shakes out not too lengthy from now. Payday: Aces Excessive is at the moment slated to reach in Q3 of 2026—so, someday between July 1 and September 30—and might be obtainable solely for Meta Quest and SteamVR headsets. It is up for wishlisting now on Steam and the Meta Retailer.
