PAYDAY: Aces High

PAYDAY: Aces High
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Fast Travel Games
Publisher	Fast Travel Games
Platform	Meta Quest, SteamVR
Device	Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, Steam Frame, Valve Index, Oculus Rift S
Operating System	Meta Horizon OS, Windows
Type	Game
Genre	Shooter, Action
Game Mode	Single-player, Co-op, Multiplayer
Release Date	Q4 2026 (planned)
App Store	Meta Horizon Store, Steam
Website	https://www.paydaythegame.com/aceshigh/

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

PAYDAY: Aces High is an upcoming cooperative first-person heist shooter for virtual reality headsets, developed and published by the Swedish studio Fast Travel Games under license from Starbreeze Entertainment, which owns the PAYDAY series. Up to four players take the roles of "The Aces", a heist crew seeking revenge on the business mogul Warren Jupiter, who framed them.

The game was announced on 24 March 2026 for Meta Quest and SteamVR headsets. At Meta Connect 2026 on 23 September 2026, Meta said the game would come to Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S with cross-play with PC VR players, that an open playtest would start on 19 October 2026, and that the full game would launch later in the year. As of 25 September 2026 the game has no fixed release date or announced price; the Steam store page lists its release as Q4 2026.

Reviewed 25 September 2026. Announcement and developer/publisher, Connect 2026 playtest and cross-play details, Steam and Horizon Store listings, release window, preview quotes and all cited sources. About review dates.

Gameplay

PAYDAY: Aces High is a first-person shooter played in VR with a focus on planning and carrying out robberies. According to its store description, the crew's targets include banks, museums and Warren Jupiter's penthouse. Crews infiltrate a location and choose when to "go loud"; Meta's Connect announcement says that triggering an alarm or being spotted by a security camera leads to a firefight to escape. The game can be played solo or with up to three other players. UploadVR reported that heists are always run by a team of four, with AI companions filling empty slots.

Each player controls one of four Aces, each with a named role:

Character	Role	Description (developer's summary)
Ace of Hearts	The Mastermind	The planner who lines up angles, fallbacks and escape routes
Ace of Clubs	The Ghost	The stealth specialist
Ace of Diamonds	The Technician	The gadget specialist
Ace of Spades	The Enforcer	The heavy hitter for loud firefights

The arsenal includes assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns and pistols, along with gadgets such as a grapple and sentry guns. Money and reputation earned from heists unlock further skills and equipment, and players build loadouts that combine weapons, gadgets and skills.

Press previews from an August 2026 hands-on session described several VR-specific interactions. UploadVR wrote that large loot is carried in duffel bags that slow the carrier's movement, that the team called in a pneumatic drill delivered by drone, that downed players can be revived by a teammate with a health injector, and that a character named The Queen narrates each heist and advises the team. Android Central reported that drilling into a vault involves a skill-check minigame and that safes are opened by turning a dial to a combination found elsewhere in the level.

Development

PAYDAY: Aces High is developed by Fast Travel Games, a Stockholm-based developer and publisher that makes only VR games and whose earlier titles include Apex Construct, Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife and Vampire: The Masquerade - Justice. Starbreeze and Fast Travel Games announced the project jointly on 24 March 2026 as an officially licensed game in the PAYDAY universe, alongside a reveal trailer and wishlist pages on the Meta Horizon Store and Steam. Starbreeze described the arrangement as a licensing partnership that extends PAYDAY into VR as part of a broader strategy to grow the franchise across platforms and formats with outside partners. The Steam listing names Fast Travel Games as both developer and publisher.

Fast Travel Games presented a developer diary for the game at the Summer 2026 VR Games Showcase on 23 June 2026. On 13 August 2026 Fast Travel Games released the first gameplay trailer at that day's VR Games Showcase and announced a closed playtest on Meta Quest 3 and SteamVR running from 20 to 24 August 2026. UploadVR reported at the time that the studio had committed to adding a new heist location as a free update before the end of 2026.

On 26 August 2026 Fast Travel Games announced that the game was being developed for Valve's wireless Steam Frame headset, using the same Steam store version as the SteamVR release. Android Central reported that the game would have six missions at launch, with varying difficulties and objectives. In a Steam post on 24 September 2026, the developer said the game was "close to going gold".

Release

The game was not yet released as of 25 September 2026. Meta's Horizon Store listing says "Coming soon Fall 2026" and carries an 18+ age rating for extreme violence and strong language, with notices for user interaction and in-game purchases. The Steam page lists single-player, online co-op and cross-platform multiplayer, English as the only supported language, and support for Steam Frame, OpenXR headsets, Valve Index, Quest via Link and Oculus Rift S.

On 23 September 2026, during Meta Connect, Meta announced an open playtest on Quest 3 and 3S starting 19 October 2026; players who join receive an exclusive mask in the full game. On PC, Fast Travel Games said the game would take part in Steam Next Fest on 19 October with a demo containing two heists from the full game, and that playing the demo unlocks an exclusive Kitty Mask. MIXED reported that the mask given for the Quest open playtest is named the Kitty Mask on the game's Horizon Store page.

Date	Event	Platforms
24 March 2026	Announcement and reveal trailer	Meta Quest, SteamVR
13 August 2026	First gameplay trailer at the VR Games Showcase	Meta Quest 3, SteamVR
20-24 August 2026	Closed playtest	Meta Quest 3, SteamVR
26 August 2026	Steam Frame support announced	Steam Frame
19 October 2026 (scheduled)	Open playtest (Quest) and Steam Next Fest demo	Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, SteamVR
Q4 2026 (planned)	Full release	Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, SteamVR, Steam Frame

Previews

The game had not been released or reviewed by late September 2026. In UploadVR's hands-on report, written after an alpha session in which one bank heist took about twenty minutes, Mike Johnson called the game "a tremendous amount of fun" while noting some expected alpha quirks. In his first impressions for Android Central, Nicholas Sutrich played three of the six missions on a Meta Quest 3 and compared the co-op experience to "a revival of the LAN party days".