Payday 2 community erupts in anger at addition of stat-changing microtransactions
Safe or sorry?
Furious PayDay 2 players have blasted developer Overkill for adding a microtransaction system to get random loot with gameplay-changing effects.
The move comes two years after producer Almir Listo reassured the game's community over fears Overkill would do just this - by saying that it wouldn't.
"The Steam page for Payday 2 has been updated based on your feedback," Listo wrote in May 2013. "We've made it clear that Payday 2 will have no microtransactions whatsoever (shame on you if you thought otherwise!)"
A month later, when asked about microtransactions being added to the game in the future, now departed lead designer David Goldfarb responded in an even more blunt way:
"No. No. God, I hope not. Never. No."
Fast forward to today, and the game's new Black Market Update, and it's a different matter entirely.
PayDay 2 will now let you crack open safes for random drops of loot. But you'll need to buy a £1.60 drill to open them.
Inside are weapon skins with gameplay-changing effects that you can either use yourself or choose to sell on.
The whole thing links up with Steam's own Community Market, where items can be resold or traded among players. It's a similar system to other shooters such as Team Fortress 2, although that game is available for free.
The official PayDay 2 Reddit has been swamped with complaints. One post, simply titled "F*** you Overkill" has more than 832 replies.
"Let's change the title of this subreddit to Pay2Day," is another popular thread.
Other fans are trying to rally the community together to tag the game with the label "microtransactions" on Steam, leave negative reviews, and stop playing the game altogether until Overkill responds.
PayDay 2 is now past its third birthday and continues to be a success on Steam. The shooter is also available for consoles and recently launched for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One - although the Xbox One port arrived in a broken state.
The game's PC version is currently priced at just £3.74, down 75% from its regular cost of £15. A large number of free and paid-for DLC packs are available.
We've reached out to Overkill to find out what its response will be.
