Crime Boss: Rockay City did not launch in a good state, but developer Ingame Studios has far from abandoned its Payday-like heist game since its rough launch. Over the past two years, the studio has released 18 major updates with the latest update bringing a new heist, roguelite progression upgrades and quality-of-life improvements to all players.
We’ve seen plenty of rough launches over the years—Sports Interactive’s Football Manager 26 is just the latest in a long run of them—but few games manage to pick themselves back up afterwards. Speaking to FRVR in a recent interview, Crime Boss: Rockay City head of development Jarek Kolář discussed bouncing back from a terrible launch.
Kolář explained that “after years of developing the game, blindness to some elements is common” but admits that “the truth was the game was not well balanced, a bit repetitive without interesting variartion and with bugs”. Nevertheless, the team felt they had “something unique and great” under the mess, and the team was lucky enough to maintain funding to see their project shine.
“Different games often have different, unique problems. Some games suffer from technical issues, some games have clunky mechanics,” he said. “The problem for CB:RC is that we wanted to innovate too much, so in the end, we lost what the game should be and by the time of release the game was a mess. The engagement of players helped us. By seeing the players playing the game we realized what areas work and what parts need improvement.
“We were lucky enough to be supported financially by Digital Bros to learn from our mistakes and make changes. This not only made game a better game, but it was also an opportunity for team to learn from mistakes. May it be creative decisions or technical solutions.”
Unfortunately, for gamers, Crime Boss: Rockay City was just one failed heist game out of two. Payday 3, which did admittedly launch in a better state than Crime Boss, disappointed many players with many opting to simply stay in the older second game which is actively receiving new updates. While some developers may be relieved to see their primary competitor flop, Ingame Studios feels for the team at Overkill, and hopes their game can also see a similar revival.
“Overkill has created the heisting genre with Payday and CB:RC is taking a lot of inspiration from both original Payday games,” the developer said. “Crime Boss had a rough start and so was the case of PD3. So, we are some kind of brothers in arms, trying to improve our games and please our fans.
“Actually, many of our fans on Discord are leaving us ideas and recommendations about what they would like to see in CB. Most of our fans are also fans of the Payday franchise. There are even several threads on our Steam forum where people are discussing the pros and cons and comparing these games together, so it is obvious that Crime Boss and Payday share the same community. Some people like one game more than the other, while many like both.”
Even with the massive improvements over the past two years, the team isn’t done improving Crime Boss: Rockay City. The developer explained that the studio’s plans for 2026 “will continue adding to the co-op experience along with modding support and improvements to the single-player campaign.”
After a terrible launch, the team is now proud of Crime Boss: Rockay City, as well as the community that the game has managed to accumulate. (I don’t know who Matthelzor is, but we’re told they’re “one of the most wholesome people”, so I hope they’re aware.)
It’s not often that a game can make this kind of resurgence. Crime Boss: Rockay City is not a Cyberpunk 2077, there’s not a massive fanbase rearing for its success. Nevertheless, the community that Ingame Studios has managed to cultivate has kept the game going, and that’s impressive to see in an industry where so many games are given just one shot at survival.
