Payday 3 Devs Hid The Game’s “Stealth” Trailer So Well, Nobody Could Find It For 5 Days

In an unusual marketing move, Starbreeze Studios sneakily hid the new trailer for Payday 3 so fans could hunt for it, but they weren’t wildly successful. After concealing the stealth gameplay trailer on its website, the developer waited five days for players to find this easter egg. However, it turns out that the Swedish studio hid the trailer a little too well, and after no one was able to find its location, it solved the mystery through the means of poetry.

PC Gamer initially figured out the story behind this innovative marketing strategy and uncovered the details behind it. Apparently, Starbreeze Studios figured that a good way to launch the new stealth trailer would be to hide it behind the existing trailer on the website, feeding into the trailer’s primary topic. Therefore, this trailer only popped into view if you had the volume slider at zero or if the site was in Incognito mode. 

When you consider this very intricate way the developer hid the Payday 3 stealth trailer, you can’t blame the fans for not figuring it out. Thankfully, the studio realized that they did too good of a job at hiding the trailer, as it was still not found days after its release, and prompted the players to search for it a little bit harder. But, when even this didn’t work, Starbreeze tweeted out hints, but not in the way one would expect.

To try and guide the struggling fanbase, Starbreeze bafflingly turned to poetry, and it wasn’t really good. As you can see in the tweet below, the developer partially admits in the stanza that may be a different part should have been taken to market the stealth trailer for Payday 3 before dropping the major hints in the last line. Eventually, the fans did figure out how to view the new stealth trailer and the trailer hunt was over.

You did nothing wrong, but we've waited so long.
Were we mistaken? Should another path have been taken?
We have shown you violent, now we try to show you silent
Think not like in a riot but try to be quiet
Start at the page, turn down the gage
or simply drop the burrito and go … https://t.co/k6v09AKuXc

— PAYDAY 3 (@PAYDAYGame) July 15, 2023

The game’s official page announced this remarkable achievement and said the stealth trailer was finally discovered. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Starbreeze finally uploaded the gameplay trailer to YouTube so everyone could see it. We have no idea if this marketing ploy worked exactly as the studio wanted it to, but considering how we are shedding light on this topic, it might have.

Billed as the sequel to its widely successful predecessor, Payday 3 is a first-person shooter title set to release on September 21, 2023, from publisher Deep Silver. The overall reception to this upcoming title has been positive thus far with the fans looking forward to seeing the gang back in action again. However, the always-online and live service title facet have dampened the excitement a bit with players not being big fans of these additions.

In the game, the gang returns to carry out a few more heists after previously leaving to go their separate ways at the end of Payday 2. Reportedly, Payday 3 will mainly take place in New York during the 2020s and diversify the criminal portfolio of the Payday gang by adding heists related to things like advanced surveillance and cryptocurrency.

Only time will tell if this sequel will match the success of the first two games when it launches on September 21, 2023. But with one million wishlists on Steam already, it’s looking promising.