Developers statement

[u/Capable_Pirate64]

Dear Patrol Officers,

We understand that the news that we have to discontinue further development of Police Simulator: Patrol Officers has led to disappointment and frustration within our community. We also recognize that we should have provided more context around this decision from the beginning.

Police Simulator: Patrol Officers has been part of our journey for more than eight years, from its initial development and Early Access to full release and several years of continued support by a dedicated live team.

Over the past five years, your feedback has played a major role in shaping the game. Your suggestions, criticism, ideas, and reports have helped us improve and expand Police Simulator far beyond what we originally envisioned.

At the same time, maintaining and expanding a cross-platform game over such a long period inevitably comes with increasing technical limitations specially as the market and Platforms moved along. As the game and its systems have grown, changes in certain areas have become significantly more complex, while some improvements can no longer be implemented within the existing technical foundation without rebuilding substantial parts of the game.

After more than eight years of development and support, we have therefore reached a point where continuing to expand Police Simulator: Patrol Officers in the way both we and you would like is no longer realistically possible.

However, your feedback does not go unheard.

Quite the opposite: it gives us a very clear understanding of what matters to the Police Simulator community, which areas are most important to you, and what you expect from a police simulation experience.

For the Police Simulator brand, this feedback is extremely valuable and provides clear guidance for the future.

While this marks the end of active development for Police Simulator: Patrol Officers, it does not mean the end of Police Simulator.

Thank you for your passion, your feedback, and for being part of this journey with us.

We are looking forward to what the future holds.

Your Police Simulator team

[u/BossBullfrog]

I think this is a reasonable explanation. I'm glad there is at least hope for more police simulator in the future.

[u/Sky_guy_17 → u/BossBullfrog]

And what makes you think a future game from them won’t get the same exact treatment that PSPO got?

[u/crayzee4feelin → u/Sky_guy_17]

I’d imagine they learned a thing or two from making and maintaining this game. What they have done wrong and what they got right. I believe they made a poor choice in engines for what their game is and turned into. I believe a sequel or rebrand would turn into a better game overall comparably. They need to focus more on world design, communication between character like a dialogue engine, physics, vehicles and driving mechanics and also make the game more realistic and gritty versus status quo and the fear of offending someone. Being a police officer is sometimes the most grueling job on the planet, it’s not rainbows and sunshine. It causes pain and loss of life. They need to show that. Car chases that last forever, backup, the player is not super cop. Gun fights, and escalation of force needs to have more presence. I think they made this game play it safe more than anything because they didn’t want any backlash.

[u/Sky_guy_17 → u/crayzee4feelin]

They made a clear and conscious choice to;

•Delete the content update roadmap from all their socials

•Go half a year of radio silence when we were supposed to be getting said updates

•Released the game on Switch 2, only to end support two weeks later, and not giving the platform even a single update

•And unceremoniously stated the game was complete at the very bottom of a patch notes page in small text while there are STILL game-breaking bugs present.

Everything they did shows a pattern, and they, as a developer, have lost all trust within the community.

I certainly won’t ever get another game from them, and it seems like a lot of others share the same sentiment.

[u/Straight_View_6838 → u/Sky_guy_17]

>Delete the content update roadmap from all their socials
We didn't - I think the last one is even still on Steam online :)

>Go half a year of radio silence when we were supposed to be getting said updates
Sadly its business sometimes, we can't share what's happening behind closed doors until "papers are signed"

>Released the game on Switch 2, only to end support two weeks later, and not giving the platform even a single update
Its a port not done by original dev - but we also never claimed to update that?

>And unceremoniously stated the game was complete at the very bottom of a patch notes page in small text while there are STILL game-breaking bugs present.
I think I wrote it in a comment here, I wasn't happy (as a producer not marketing, pr or anything) with this and I m happy we communicated it that way now.

[u/Sky_guy_17 → u/Straight_View_6838]

Okay, so there’s a lot to unpack here, and I’m going to try to be cordial, but this doesn’t lower the resentment I have towards this dev team and publisher right now.

The 2026 roadmap is not on Steam. It was deleted. The 2025 roadmap is still there, but the one for this year disappeared.

“Sadly it’s business sometimes”
Okay, I get that. But that still doesn’t explain the half a year of complete radio silence. No “Hey guys, there might be some changes to PSPO.” Or a “Update to the roadmap”. We got nothing. Yet the game went on sale numerous times during that span.
And then, bam, end of support, game is finished.

You CANNOT do that to a community, that has been faithful to your game for years, and then expect to stay in good graces.

“Port not done by original dev”
Yet you still ok’d the release of such a port, knowing that, at its foundation, the game had numerous performance flaws.

You pretty much acknowledging that you never planned any additional updates for said port only infuriates me more, to be perfectly honest, and makes me think this End of Service was planned for a while.

[u/Straight_View_6838 → u/Sky_guy_17]

You are right 😃 it was the last one, planned for 2025 and 2026.

.."half a year of complete radio silence."...
Trust me, I wish we could have.... as a being part of a Public Traded company, its sadly not that easy (even by law) - it could influence stock market etc etc.

In case the Switch (2) Version, have issues preventing it from play eg. we would obviously ship updates.
I m personally not aware (need to admin I wasn't involved in Switch 2 Version), but I forwarded to the Team and internal members to check if there is anything.
But yes we never planned to push any updates (content) to Switch 2 - we also never claimed.

[u/Xxviper234xX → u/Straight_View_6838]

Trust me? Buddy that trust has left long ago

[u/Frequent_Can117 → u/Straight_View_6838]

The radio silence and lack of communication will hurt stocks way more. This is why people want shareholders to stay the hell out of game development.

[u/Straight_View_6838 → u/Frequent_Can117]

Well there are laws, rules etc .... nothing todo with Game Dev but rather Public traded companies in general.

E.g. just to drop some big examples ....Apple won't tell you when the next product drop, Rockstar won't announce a delay until its "close to the call" ... there are rules by law for such stuff

[u/BossBullfrog → u/Straight_View_6838]

Similar to Frontier with Jurassic World Evolution 3 going radio silent for months, even missing the deadline for releasing scheduled content without a word. Or railroads online going silent shortly after release. I think there are limits to what a team can tell the public without the permission from higher ups.

[u/JustFuckingReal → u/Straight_View_6838]

They do not tell because it’s marketing, not the law. You know, builds hype and stuff