Payday 2 quickly assembled a passionate community in relatively large numbers which made online matches a real treat. The game’s frantic action and tactical heists appealed to fans of online shooters and many smaller studios could only dream of such as loyal player base. Sadly, the majority of multiplayer focused indie games fail within a short space of time as the active player count continues to dwindle. Despite the hugely successful launch and thriving community, microtransactions were included in the Black Market update. This was an unbelievably stupid decision especially since the lead designer said when discussing the notion of introducing microtransactions:
“No. No. God, I hope not. Never. No.”
As you can imagine, this created a huge amount of annoyance from Payday 2 players who felt like they had been misled. Strategically, it was a very poor move and prioritised short-term financial gains over the benefits of maintaining a large user base. Thankfully, the franchise rights have now been returned to Overkill and 505 Games no longer influences the decision-making process. Overkill has reversed the move to implement microtransactions and said via a Steam post:
“The PAYDAY franchise is ours again and to celebrate it, we’re giving away a community grenade, the skills tree and we’re making the black market free for everyone going forward. Check out the video above for more details.”
This is fantastic news for Payday users and it might even encourage those who left because of their displeasure with the business model to return. It will be interesting the analyse the data and judge what effect this has on the game’s active community.
