It seems like Payday 3 will be the latest game that requires an always-online connection to play. The upcoming heisting threequel will be playable solo, but as for offline, this doesn't seem to be the case, at least if Starbreeze's global brand director Almir Listo is to be believed.
As part of a Payday 2 livestream, Almir was asked about specifically this: would Payday 3 feature an offline mode? To which he replied, "No. You will be able to play it by yourself, but I do believe you will have to have a connection in order to play because it's made in the Unreal Engine, it's using cross-progression, [and] cross-play. I do believe we need you to be online."
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We'll get to see how the always-online style affects Payday 3 (if at all) soon, as the game is set to debut on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles (even as a day one Game Pass addition) on September 21.
Thanks, Eurogamer.