A wise movie ( Princess Bride) once told us, “People in masks cannot be trusted.” With every playable character in Payday 2 wearing masks, we should have thought something might be up. That, and it being a game about stealing all sorts of money. Now, its true colors have been shown. Payday 2 is getting microtransactions, and they’re the naughty kind that get labeled as “pay-to-win.”
Overkill originally said it wouldn’t nickel and dime its players, making them pay for add-ons with real cash. People appreciated that honesty. Except it’s turned out to be dishonesty, because the Black Market will now have safes that randomly contain weapon skins. Worse, these aren’t cosmetic changes. These weapon skins alter the guns when applied, giving them a stat boost. How do you get one? By paying $2.50 for a drill to open it.
If they were just visual customizations, that’d be a different story. Payday 2 and other games have had similar promotions. Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive do this with supply crates and keys, with the prices per key hovering around $2.50 in the markets. The difference is, the acquired items in CS:GO and Team Fortress 2 are purely cosmetic and Valve never promised not to sell them.
Payday 2 isn’t even free-to-play – it’s usually $19.99. Overkill made promises in many interviews saying it wouldn’t do this exact thing. Yet here we are, and it’s $2.50 for a random skin that could be fantastic or a waste of money in the Crimefest II or Sputnik Safes.
What makes things worse is that, while Payday 2 is a cooperative game, the implementation of these microtransactions is making it pay-to-win. Some of the existing weapons have been made weaker in recent updates. People’s favorites may not pack the punch that they did before. Unless, of course, they happen to spend money on a drill for a safe and, by some miracle, get a skin or mod that would make that gun viable again. At that point, it’s almost wiser to search the Community Market for specific drops, pay real cash for them, and worry less about the exact item acquired.
But really, this shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Cosmetic DLC is fine in games, even if they’re random drops. Some people are okay with paying those prices, and those who aren’t don’t have to deal with any kind of penalty. But with Payday 2 , we get a travesty trifecta. Overkill promised no microtransactions, these microtransaction items are more than just cosmetic, and the game has been adjusted to make them feel more necessary. It’s disappointing all around, and people should be aware and beware.