Embracer admits Payday 3's launch was "weaker than expected," and that 900 employees lost their jobs to restructuring last quarter

Payday 3 has underperformed for Starbreeze parent company Embracer.

Launched earlier this year in September, Payday 3 was mired with technical issues and bugs at launch. This launch experience, according to Embracer Group, has led to a disappointing release for Payday 3 in general, as CEO Lars Wingefors recently revealed in an earnings report.

"We have seen a mixed reception and performance for the externally developed game Payday 3 and a few smaller releases in the quarter," Wingefors' statement reads. The CEO expects Payday 3 to "contribute positively" to Embracer's earnings in the current fiscal year, but this would still be "below management expectations."

Latest Videos From

This is because, Wingefors says, Payday 3 had "a softer launch" due to an "unforeseen error relating to external matchmaking software impacted the experience." That's a long-winded way to say Payday 3's servers took a beating at launch and were only up and running properly six full weeks after release.

Elsewhere, Wingefors confirmed that Embracer had laid off 900 staff in the previous financial quarter. "In this group-wide effort, we are not only discontinuing a number of studios, we have also made staff reductions and reduced the number of projects in several other studios, with a focus on improving the projected return on investment within PC/Console," the CEO said.

The "restructuring effort" was first announced by Embracer in June earlier this year. Wingefors said at the time that Embracer would "reduce third-party publishing," and would be making an unspecified number of staff redundant of its total 17,000 workers around the world, but we now know the number of staff impacted.

Read up on our Payday 3 Matchmaking and Nebula errors guide if you're currently experiencing problems in the shooter.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.