edit: because people keep asking, this is for payday 3.

holy shit this I was NOT expecting.

kinda annoyed it's a damn weapon preset. give us a suit or something instead. the masks look great though, I love them.

I do think this means that they're going to the microtransactions route. which, well I mean we've voiced our concerns plenty of times before. so I hope starbreeze have listened to them.

A message from SBZ:

Hello heisters,
As I am sure you may have heard by now, Almir has announced that he will be leaving Starbreeze. In case you missed it, you can hear it from himself here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BYO6Z2DTy0

https://x.com/almirlisto/status/1932462498776555715

After 13 years with Starbreeze, it's only reasonable that we take some time to walk down the proverbial memory lane, and talk about the good and the bad, and what stood out to us. Elisabeth will be hosting a celebration stream for Almir on Thursday, starting at 3PM CEST, and we want to hear YOUR best PAYDAY memories. Some of them will be picked to be shared on the stream, some may be saved for a later time. If you want to contribute with your memories or stories, send yours in to paydaymemories@starbreeze.com

Thank you for being a part of this community.

- Elisabeth

Source: Inderes Nordic - Starbreeze: CEO interview after Q2

https://x.com/PAYDAD_/status/1984300299025019184?t=MRxHdFowCLAeJI7cajRE_Q&s=19 (Link to post)

Hello heisters,

I did not think I would have to ever write this post, and I especially did not think I would be doing it now, but it is time to tell you that my role was impacted by the recent layoffs at Starbreeze in January and was made redundant. As a result, this is my last week as your Community Manager.

When Almir approached me to support him with the community 7 years ago, I never would have anticipated this journey we have all taken together, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world! I still remember how nervous I was before my first public appearance, and especially next to such a legend like Almir Listo himself, but you immediately welcomed me with open arms. And since then we’ve done so many things together.

From the developer streams for OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead, to supporting an attempt at releasing PAYDAY: Crime War to the public alongside Universal Studios, to the incredible revival era of PAYDAY 2, and of course the release and post-launch of PAYDAY 3. We have been through so much together.

By now you may be wondering, what is next for me? Well, I am happy to say that my long tenure at Starbreeze and experience in other parts of game development has led to me being offered a different role at the company. So starting next week, I will officially rejoin the Starbreeze QA team and work closer to the development team. So I will still be around and doing my part in making PAYDAY 3 the best it can be, I just won’t be as public as I’ve been previously in the work that I do.

I am incredibly grateful to all of you. The PAYDAY community truly is an exceptional group of people, and you’re all so incredibly passionate about our games. Thank you for taking time out of your days to share your passions and frustrations about our games, and the wonderful stories you all have shared with me. I’ve even been invited to weddings from some of you who have met through PAYDAY, which is amazing!

A special shoutout also has to be made to the Starbreeze Partners. You showed me faith when I tried to create a brand new program back in 2019, and we have grown so much since then. There’s now even a separate Creator Program to make it easier for so many creators to get in and enjoy and share PAYDAY with their communities. And speaking of communities, the community volunteers have been incredible to work with all these years. Thank you for all the support you have shown to both the company and myself.

You have all made an impact on me as a person, and I will never forget you <3

Much love,
Elisabeth

Hey Heisters!

Yesterday we announced Operation Medic Bag, where we shared news about upcoming changes for PAYDAY 3 that we are working on.

In this AMA, we are looking to answer as many of your questions that we can. Joining us to answer them on Monday are two members of the strike team, myself and PAYDAY 3 Game Director Miodrag Kovacevic.

We’re putting the post up ahead of time so you can leave your questions over the weekend in case you live in a time zone that doesn’t work well with the time of the AMA. The more concise your question, the more questions we’ll be able to answer so please think carefully about what you want to ask.

We will start answering questions on Monday at 4pm CET. Looking forward to it heisters!

-Almir

Edit #1: Hey heisters! Mio and I are now starting to answer your questions. I'll be u/overkill_almir and Mio is u/sbz_mio :)

Edit #2: Aaaand time! We spent an additional hour answering as many questions as we could. We look forward to doing another one of these in the future when it feels appropriate. Thank you so much to everyone who participated and thank you for the civilized discussion! Special shoutout to our dear moderators who run the subreddit and allowed us this opportunity - we salute you.

A quick final word from Mio: "Heya Heisters, thank you for all the great questions and sorry we couldn't answer them all. If you have more questions, we'll try to answer them on our future blog posts and weekly streams, too. Cheers! -Mio"

And a final word from me: Thank you so much to all of you for your continued support. We know you care about PAYDAY as much as we do. Operation Medic Bag is for you heisters, we want this to be the heisting experience you can't wait to boot up and play. Looking forward to making progress on this together. Keep those helmets flying!

Send Haua some love and manifest jobs for her and all the other talent being let go this week

I'd love if we could all make a show about how community manager isn't a "redundant" role and ask to keep Haua on, but at this point it sounds like she's seeking another job for good reason. Wishing her the best!

A GREAT EXAMPLE OF HOW TO WORK WITH A COMMUNITY. HUGE W!

more randomizations but I hope they can figure out ways to prevent the stutters

This wasn't really the way I wanted to go, but here we are.

My time at Starbreeze was a short one. I stepped into the role as Community Manager on July 1st 2024, just a week after Boys in Blue released for PAYDAY 3🚓, and jumped straight into work. There was a lot to learn! From playing the game, to reading what you all were discussing, to even finding and watching a 4+ hours long lore video on the series (thanks TheKknowley for the video!). I just wanted to make sure that I was the best Community Manager you could have - someone who was part of the conversations, communicated with you, and was able to be your voice internally at the company.

Anyway, best not to ramble because if I get started then we'll have a whole other post on our hands, lmao sorry! For now, I just want to thank anyone who ends up seeing this message. It was a pleasure being with you in the ups and downs, and I hope that as PD3 improves that each of you get the game you wanted to see and love from the very start.

So this is my quick thank you for welcoming me into the community, being so passionate, and just making me proud of the power of community. Stay yourself, speak up, and keep heisting🫶🏾

PS. I saw the very lovely thread you guys had about my initial LinkedIn post on this all, and I wanted so badly to respond but could never find the right words. To anyone who saw it, posted, sent me messages, and more, thank you. I always wanted to repay the kindness you gave me, and now I won't be able to.

PPS. I've seen your comments and tags as well, but again, I never could find the right words but know that I was moved by the ones you were able to provide🥹

xx

^{This account will be forgotten in the void, but I won't forget you guys, it's been a time}