Acting CEO of Starbreeze, Mikael Nermark, made an announcement stating that they’re reneging on their promise about Payday 2’s DLC being at an end. Due to the company’s financial troubles and recent string of failures, they’re going back to providing DLC à la carte and replacing the Payday 2: Ultimate Edition that contained all the DLC with the Payday 2: Legacy Collection.

The news was made via a post over on the Steam community page on October 25th, 2019 where Nermark explained that they will release new DLC for Payday 2 in November called Border Crossing.

Nemark explained why they’re going back to offering free and paid DLC for Payday 2, writing…

“To get it out of the door immediately; yes, I know we’re breaking a promise. We do not do so with ease or take this lightly.

 

“At one point in time, our company believed that the interest and engagement in PAYDAY 2 would decline over time, as new internal games were released. Resources were needed on new projects and production of PAYDAY 2 was scheduled to stop and no more updates to come. By popular demand this deadline was extended a few times, but development on PAYDAY 2 ultimately shut down December 2018.

 

“It was also believed that the sheer amount of six years of DLC-releases was confusing for returning or new players and a blocker for people to get into the game. At the same time, getting the game with all of its content, was coming in above 200 USD, a respectable sum for any game. Hence, PAYDAY 2: Ultimate Edition was born as a packaged deal. It was basically the promise of “get everything PAYDAY 2 in a package, until we release the next installment of PAYDAY”.

 

“Now we’re breaking the Ultimate Edition promise of forever-free-content. The reasoning for this is plain and simple:

 

“We want to move forward and make more of PAYDAY 2, and to do so we need your support to continue producing content. New DLCs will be a mix of paid and free updates.”

In the previous paragraph Nemark explained how Starbreeze was on the verge of shutting down due to mismanagement and financial troubles, and that he came back into the fold as acting CEO following the marketplace bombs that were Raid: World War II and The Walking Dead.

The company now hopes to recoup some of their standing through new DLC for Payday 2, which includes the Border Crossing expansion due out in November.

Overkill Software has already added a Steam store page for the new DLC and uploaded a few screenshots to give gamers an idea of what to expect.

As for Starbreeze going back on their promises… this wouldn’t be the first time that happened. Previously they announced that they wouldn’t add microtransactions and loot boxes to the game, but they ended up doing it anyway, received massive backlash from the community and then had to nix the idea in the end.

We’ll see if they have better luck with the Payday 2: Legacy Collection replacing the Payday 2: Ultimate Edition, and if the Payday 2: Border Crossing DLC will be well received or not.

If they can get back on track financially, they’re expecting to release Payday 3 somewhere between 2022 and 2023.

(Thanks for the news tip Doug)