A New 4-Player Co-Op Payday Game was Just Announced, But With an Asterisk Attached

Fans of the heist genre are getting a brand-new 4-player co-op Payday game, but it comes with a specific catch that might change how some people play. The upcoming entry, titled Payday: Aces High, is designed to expand the franchise by presenting it in VR. While the developers are keeping many of the biggest surprises under wraps, this project represents a significant shift in direction for the series’ Payday formula.

For the last decade, Starbreeze has essentially centered its entire business around these cooperative crime games. Their second entry, which launched back in 2013, was a massive hit that sold over 40 million copies and kept the firm afloat during some very lean years. However, the 2023 release of the third mainline Payday title was much more rocky, arriving negative reviews and dealing with numerous technical bugs. Despite those hurdles, the franchise remains a powerhouse in the industry, boasting a lifetime player base of over 50 million people and generating more than $400 million in total revenue. Payday: Aces High is being developed in collaboration with Fast Travel Games, a Stockholm-based studio with a strong pedigree in creating immersive software like Apex Construct and Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice.

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Stepping Into the Shoes of a New Crew

The storyline for this latest adventure moves away from the original Payday gang to focus on a completely fresh group of criminals with their own unique motivations. According to Gamesindustry.biz, the developers at Fast Travel Games felt it was important to create a new cast to give themselves more creative freedom while still keeping everything set in the same gritty universe fans already know. The plot is a classic tale of revenge where these new heisters are on a mission to get even with a business tycoon named Warren Jupiter after being set up for a crime they didn’t commit. This journey will take the crew through several high-profile locations, including secure banks, valuable museums, and even a fancy luxury penthouse apartment. The goal isn’t just to steal money; it’s about systematically dismantling a massive empire through “signature chaos” and surgical precision.

In terms of how the game actually plays, it sticks to the core elements that made the series famous but tweaks them for a more hands-on feel. Players can choose from four distinct archetypes, each represented by a card suit: the Mastermind, the Ghost, the Technician, and the Enforcer. The Mastermind (Ace of Hearts) acts as the strategist who plans every exit, while the Ghost (Ace of Clubs) focuses on being silent and surgical. If things go loud, the Technician (Ace of Diamonds) brings in the high-tech gadgets, and the Enforcer (Ace of Spades) acts as the heavy-hitting hammer that holds off the police. Payday: Aces High follows the familiar loop of pulling off a successful job to earn cash and reputation, which can then be spent on an ever-expanding stash of firepower, including assault rifles, shotguns, and specialized gadgets like sentry guns.

Because this is a virtual reality exclusive, the developers had to rethink many of the franchise’s traditional mechanics to make them feel natural in a 3D space. The “Quiet Mode” stealth phases have been completely reworked so that players can interact with their environment in a way that feels intuitive rather than just pressing a button on a controller. Every weapon and gadget has been designed with VR-specific interactions in mind, ensuring that reloading a pistol or setting up a grapple feels like a physical action. While the game is built for four-person online co-op, Payday: Aces High is also fully playable as a solo experience for those who prefer to work alone. To help keep the player base connected, the title will support full cross-platform play between those using Meta Quest headsets and SteamVR users.

Looking at the bigger picture, this VR spin-off is just the first step in a much larger expansion plan for the Payday brand. Starbreeze executive Matt Dixon described the IP as the company’s “growth engine” and expressed a desire to bring the world of masks and duffel bags to even more platforms and formats, per Gamesindustry.biz. There is even talk of the franchise breaking into film and television, as Vice Studios recently acquired the rights to develop a movie or TV show. Former CEO Tobias Sjögren previously mentioned that a live-action project would be a “perfect fit” for the series, as it would allow the writers to explore the deep backstories of the characters in ways that games sometimes cannot. Payday: Aces High is currently scheduled to land on digital storefronts later this year, bringing the classic masked mayhem to a whole new set of hardware.