According to Overkill producer Almir Listo, microtransactions are here to stay in Payday 2, despite promising the community they would never see the light of day.
In an AMA on Reddit, Listo attempted to reach out to the community, but was met with resistance after they implemented microtransactions in the game when they had previously stated that they would never do so: “We’ve made it clear that PAYDAY 2 will have no micro-transactions whatsoever (shame on you if you thought otherwise!)”
Commenting on the state of the community, Listo said, “We understand that there is a lot of fury, anger and disappointment with us adding this. From an economical standpoint however, completely based on statistics, we can already see that the Black Market update is working as we intended.”
Although the microtransaction system can be ignored, as it can be with any game, new players and those who play games this way will obviously take advantage of this market in the game, however it does not sit well with a majority of its dedicated fanbase–the same fanbase that made the game as popular as it is today and that Overkill made the promise to.
It will be interesting to see if this lack of empathy for the community continues or if Overkill will return to its roots. Perhaps even more interesting, will it be a financially sound investment in the long run?