Overkill Software producer Almir Listo has issued an apology for Payday 2‘s sudden shift toward a microtransaction-driven revenue model, admitting that “we screwed up” and promising that “we will do our best to improve as soon as possible.”
The apology addresses Payday 2‘s recently-launched Black Market Update, which awards players stat-boosting items in exchange for one-time-use drill items priced at $2.49 apiece. The update met with an overwhelmingly negative reception among Payday 2‘s playerbase, and sparked widespread criticism of Overkill Software.
Listo previously pledged that Payday 2 “will have no microtransactions whatsoever” prior to the game’s launch.
“The past few weeks have been some of the most challenging in the history of this community,” Listo stated. “Players have been angry with us, media have written about us en masse and our volunteer moderators went on strike. For all the distress we’ve caused the past few weeks, I’d just like to take the time and say that we’re sorry. We’ve done a lot of things right in the past, but these past few weeks we screwed up. We need to get better at many things, and we will do our best to improve as soon as possible.”
Released for consoles and PCs in 2013, Payday 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter in which players team up for high-stakes heists and acts of espionage. An enhanced version, Payday 2: Crimewave Edition, launched earlier this year for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
The game earned a sizable following in the months after its launch, and frequent content updates provided incentive for players to remain an active part of the Payday 2 community. Many dedicated fans expressed frustration and disappointment over the recent introduction of microtransactions, which potentially give paying players an unfair advantage.
Overkill’s Listo outlined the studio’s decision to introduce microtransactions in a recent Reddit AMA session, explaining that the new revenue model supports a development team that has tripled in size since launch.
Overkill Software has not announced specific plans to make amends with its playerbase.
