The cooperative crime shooter "Payday 2" is seven years old and getting a bit dated, but it still has about 20-60,000 people playing it every month and regular updates. So where is "Payday 3," for which we haven't gotten much new information since early 2017, and where is the tweet from the official Payday account, a curious fragment of... Information? That's what it looks like.

The only new information is that Payday 3 will use the Unreal Engine. It has been known for years that Payday 3 is in the works, but it is still in the overall design stage and does not appear to have a confirmed release date, although the Payday series is being developed by the Swedish studio Overkill, publishing is done by Starbreeze, and Starbreeze has had notable financial and legal problems in recent years. Therefore, as far as we know, "Payday 3" is still scheduled for release in 2022 or 2023, a full decade after the release of "Payday 2". Payday 2" is still actively being updated and is an active and successful game by any conventional measure. The latest DLC, Breakfast in Tijuana, was released this past July.

Payday 3's development has been largely overshadowed by troubles at publisher Starbreeze.

After Overkill's The Walking Dead flopped in late 2018, Starbreeze announced in May 2019 that it would not last another year without significant financial support. The following month, the company underwent a major restructuring that laid off 25% of its employees and sold valuable publishing rights to games like "Psychonauts 2" and "System Shock 3. "Publishing of "Payday 2" was suspended for most of 2019, but resumed in October. Starbreeze announced earlier this year that it was looking for a publishing partner for "Payday 3" shortly before its former CEO was convicted of insider trading.

It's all a bit bleak for Starbreeze, but at this point there are important signs that the revenue from "Payday 2" is enough for Overkill to complete "Payday 3."