Payday 2 Adds Microtransactions, Hints At Free-To-Play

Jason Winter
By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted:
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Payday 2

Two years after saying it would never introduce microtransactions into Payday 2, to the point of saying "shame on you if you thought otherwise," developer Overkill Software did just that with last week's Black Market update. The response to the move was predictably less than well-received, and while it's still charting as "Mostly Positive" on its Steam page, a torrent of negativity has reduced the percentage of positive reviews from 89% when the announcement was made to 77% as of this writing.

Over the weekend, producer Amir Listo took to Reddit to try and explain his company's stance. He explains that the dev team has tripled in size, from 25 to 75 members, which has allowed them to continue producing new content. Now, after 88 updates to the game, microtransactions are needed "to ensure the future survival of the game."

Payday2 Drills

I don't follow Payday 2, so I can't speak to all the issues long-time players are having, but hearing Listo describe the main part of the game's cash shop being loot boxes that you have to pay $2.50 to open for a chance to get skins with stat bonuses... yeah, even for a totally PvE game, that makes me cringe, and not just a little.

Surprise, surprise, though, people with oversized bank accounts seem to love it. As Listo says, "From an economical standpoint however, completely based on statistics, we can already see that the Black Market update is working as we intended."

More to the point for MMOBomb readers, though, Listo later says that taking Payday 2 free-to-play, while not an immediate concern, isn't off the table:

Payday2 F2P

Considering how Overkill Studios has conducted the move into microtransactions, I'd say it's more a question of "when" Payday 2 goes F2P, rather than "if." If it does, would you play it?

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In this article: Payday 2, Overkill Studios.

About the Author

Jason Winter
Jason Winter, News Editor

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

More Stories by Jason Winter

Discussion (6)

Whippylash 8 years ago
I love Payday 2 so do not get me wrong on that.
With the amount of cheap dlc's it got it already feels like microtransactions.
So what they are doing now is just wrong and sadly it is going to be the end of Payday.
They know that Payday 2 is dying so they want to make as much money as possible before its dead.

Sephiroth 8 years ago
Well i love it when i see people spend a fortune on stuff in a game , then down the line it closes, deserves people right for thinking p2w is the way to go and makes me laugh at all the money they lost when it could well be used for something actually worth it.

But peeps will never learn.....

GamingMaster 8 years ago
People still play this game? you know you can play GTA 5 online with others and rob a bank :P...

I got pay day heist for free but i only played like 1 game and uninstalled, its pretty boring.

AShoppingCartGLX 8 years ago
So they are getting desperate...good call. This would be a great move to the Free To Play market. Now that we have Cliff Blezinski (lead designer on Gears of War and developer of Unreal Tournament) and Blizzard making moves to the market. We will see a bunch more big name devs stopping by, you know with Americas economy being in the toilet Is see a bright future for this market(In the United States).

Bic Boi 8 years ago
They oughta rename it Backpedal : The Game. These guys lied about DLC and now they're putting in microtransactions when they clearly stated it was *not* going to happen. Money trumps all. Because Ƒuck fans, all that matters is money. Goddamn OverGREED.

really 8 years ago
Really?


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