Payday 2 - acquired by Starbreeze, microtransactions removed!

[Astral Rag]

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3127521

http://www.destructoid.com/payday-2...after-developer-said-it-wouldn-t-315725.phtml

Spoiler

 

[Edward The Mediocre]

Speaking of cheating, as a guy who has a scripts for the sole purpose of unlocking the DLC this game the game become a bit more enjoyable as you can play the DLC maps anytime you want but it's very fucking clear that not a single thought is given about balancing the DLC gear whatsoever. Because of those shittly balanced weapons, at this point I just boot up the game when just add new heists and then beat them about on every difficulty once and don't touch the game for months until the next update. But now I'm just thinking of uninstalling PD2 altogether.

 

[Utgard-Loki]

this is an amazing trainwreck. first microtransaction mega-kikedom and halfassed weapon balance, and now a bunch of shoddily modeled masks.
how will they top this tomorrow?

 

[Infinitron]

Oooh, drama.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...t-addition-of-stat-changing-microtransactions

PayDay 2 community erupts in anger at addition of stat-changing microtransactions

Furious PayDay 2 players have blasted developer Overkill for adding a microtransaction system to get random loot with gameplay-changing effects.

The move comes two years after producer Almir Listo reassured the game's community over fears Overkill would do just this - by saying that it wouldn't.

An unfortunately-named gun in PayDay 2.

"The Steam page for Payday 2 has been updated based on your feedback," Listowrote in May 2013. "We've made it clear that Payday 2 will have no microtransactions whatsoever (shame on you if you thought otherwise!)"

A month later, when asked about microtransactions being added to the game in the future, now departed lead designer David Goldfarb responded in an even more blunt way:

"No. No. God, I hope not. Never. No."

Fast forward to today, and the game's new Black Market Update, and it's a different matter entirely.

PayDay 2 will now let you crack open safes for random drops of loot. But you'll need to buy a £1.60 drill to open them.

Inside are weapon skins with gameplay-changing effects that you can either use yourself or choose to sell on.

The whole thing links up with Steam's own Community Market, where items can be resold or traded among players. It's a similar system to other shooters such as Team Fortress 2, although that game is available for free.

The official PayDay 2 Reddit has been swamped with complaints. One post, simply titled "F*** you Overkill" has more than 832 replies.

"Let's change the title of this subreddit to Pay2Day," is another popular thread.

Other fans are trying to rally the community together to tag the game with the label "microtransactions" on Steam, leave negative reviews, and stop playing the game altogether until Overkill responds.

PayDay 2 is now past its third birthday and continues to be a success on Steam. The shooter is also available for consoles and recently launched for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One - although the Xbox One port arrived in a broken state.

The game's PC version is currently priced at just £3.74, down 75% from its regular cost of £15. A large number of free and paid-for DLC packs are available.

We've reached out to Overkill to find out what its response will be.

 

[Astral Rag]

According to some commenters this latest update also makes it impossible to use mods.

edit: Overkill have removed the LUA hook for mods, killing off all mods including Goonmod that adds free skns.

 

[Farage]

When will people learn not to pre-order

 

[Night Goat]

Never, manboon is not a learning animal. They just have to spend money as soon as they see something they want, even if there's absolutely no reason to do so.

 

[Infinitron]

Uh this game was released in 2013. This has nothing to do with pre-ordering.

 

[Papa Môlé]

This is just what happens when the technology of manipulating the human pleasure-reward circuit advances faster than society's ability to generate cultural norms in response to serve as a check. That is to say, this kind of degenerate practice is not really different than the market as whole these days.

Spoiler

HURR DURR CANT STOP PROGRESS.

 

[pippin]

This thread is now about finding Waldo

I agree. We should all play Hidden Object games instead.

 

[Chamezero]

http://www.pd2stats.com/

Greetings User,

If you are reading this then you are one of the few remaining people that actually uses my website.
I thank you for that.

However you are probably wondering why you see this letter instead of the site you were looking for.
If you have a moment then I will explain you why.

I will start from the very beginning.

About a year and some months ago I started building this site, in secret.
Once I got to the point that it was usable I released it and it was quickly picked up by Overkill and promoted.

Some months later I got invited to visit Overkill's Studios.
We talked about several things.

One of them was pd2stats and, yes, the fbi files.
Back then I was promised that the fbi files would not be like pd2stats, they aren't gonna be anything similar and they aren't intended to make pd2stats useless or kill it.

After the visit, I barely had any contact with Overkill for over 8 months.

About four months before fbi files release, I was promised again by Overkill that I would be informed about the fbi files and that I would have a hand in making it happen.

Four months pass, I heard nothing from Overkill until the announcement of the fbi files.

That's when it got evident that something went wrong.

I contacted Overkill through an employee that normally has nothing to do with any of this.
I am very grateful that he tried to help.
It was literally the only chance I got to get any kind of a response.

He got back to me and I was told that the team responsible for the fbi files was not informed about the existence of pd2stats or about plans that higher management in Overkill had.

At this point there still was some time and I was ensured that people have been informed about it and I would be contacted asap.

A week later, no responses. I contacted them again to be told that everyone is aware of the situation and I would be contacted.

Another week later, another message, this time I was simply asked if I was contacted yet. No, I had not been contacted.

Another couple days later, I informed them that pd2stats has now under 20 users (if you are one of them, thank you) and that 50% of the funding for lastbullet.net is now gone.
I am involved in developing lastbullet.net and as such I use the ads revenue from pd2stats for it.

Essentially at this point pd2stats.com was using more resources than it could make up for. Way more.
I have informed Overkill about the shutdown of pd2stats a week in advance. I also suggested that making pd2stats official or working together with the fbi files might fix this issue.
I will be contacted very soon.

Another week passed, no replies, seemingly no one cares.
And it turned out that Overkill does respond to other people about various matters.
So this implies that they are on purpose ignoring this.

I managed to contact them directly two weeks later (yesterday), to be told that there is no time for discuss this and I should wait another couple weeks. Meanwhile pd2stats is going down more and more. There seemingly is no point to this anymore.

We have now arrived at the present, with this distressing situation.
This is why you are reading this letter instead of getting to where you wanted to go.

If you would like to my work and the website, or if you still think there is hope, the spread the word, contact them. Maybe together we can make something happen at last.

Overkill’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/OVERKILL_TM
PD2Stats discussion thread on steam community: http://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/490123197947233328/

Lastly here are some technical details for anyone that wants them.
The code of pd2stats is not gone. It just is not alive anymore.
api.pd2stats.com is still running. It uses resources and lastbullet.net pays for it.

I hope you have a nice day.

Greetings,
PD2Stats Team

that sucks

https://www.facebook.com/Shonuffian/posts/187263621607220

overkill indeed

 

[Metro]

Was wondering why this thread got bumped recently. How is this at all surprising given the amount of DLC they pumped out?

 

[Chamezero]

Nobody expected them to fuck up this bad in such a short amount of time, it's a sight to behold.
I mean, even Reddit cocksuckers are mad

strong PR

 

[Fargus]

 

[Papa Môlé]

I agree. We should all play Hidden Object games instead.

find ur penis lel

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Azrael the cat]

Knowing nothing about the topic before clicking on this thread, within 30 seconds I notice the following:

1. Game is called 'Payday'
2. Promotional graphic has a couple of guys in clown-masks, that very much seem the clown version of the Codex troll emoji.
3. Game is apparently about crime and stealing from people.
4. People are shocked and appalled that the developer has robbed them all with microtransactions and DLC designed to maximise short-term $$$.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

The sad part of all this is that Payday 2 used to be a good coop FPS with some neat mechanics. Now it has gone to shit with poor weapon, perk and general gameplay balance which has been compounded by every shitty cashgrab DLC release Overkill have made. No amount of GET THE FUCK UP is going to save it now.

 

[otsego]

How quickly a developer that 'gets it' by releasing a fun, often challenging gameplay-oriented title that is very user friendly goes to total shit in a few years with endless barrages of DLC and finally the full switch to microtransactions.
"These guys are awesome, I'll buy their next game!" -> "Ok enough DLC already, I'll be wary of you in the future" -> "Fuck you guys, I'm out."

 

[Papa Môlé]

Payday 2 was never very good. The first one knew what it was trying to be and didn't have ambition, or maybe just budget, beyond its competence. The 2nd one tried to incorporate stealth into it, not a bad idea in a heist game of course, except they clearly had no clue wtf they were doing and made it a tedious all or nothing affair, not to mention the idiocy of having a "stealth class" when you either want everyone on the squad to be stealth or no one depending on how you are trying to do things. Add the above-mentioned shitty balancing on top of that from endless, pointless weapon DLC--starting not even that long after the game's release--and you have a game that wins by default. That is, it's played because there is no other co-op crime heisting game available not because it's actually any good.

 

[Astral Rag]

PayDay 2 developer defends microtransactions
By Tom Phillips Published 26/10/2015

PayDay 2 producer Almir Listo has defended his team's decision to add paid microtransactions to the team crime shooter's PC version.

The game's recent Black Market update added random drops of stat-changing loot via virtual safes, which were only crackable with a £1.60/$2.50 drill.

Loot from these safes can then be sold on to other players for real-world cash, or kept by players for themselves.

PayDay 2's community reacted in fury at the change - especially as Listo himself had previously made it clear that microtransactions were not on the cards.
But this was several years ago, Listo has now argued as part of a new Reddit AMA with the game's still-simmering community. Times have changed, and developer Overkill now needs more money to keep the game running. And microtransactions are here to stay.

Six months ago Overkill permanently reduced the price of Payday 2, but the move did not see as many copies sold as the developer had hoped.

"We didn't see the result we anticipated, and have had to think of other ways to make sure we can continue creating content in the pace we want in order to keep PayDay 2 fresh and exciting," Listo revealed.

Additionally, Overkill tripled its PayDay 2 team size after the game grew in popularity and after it signed a partnership with publisher 505 Games.

"We have a partnership with our partner 505 Games, where we have a deal to produce a specific amount of content until 2017. However, we at Overkill want to create more than what we and 505 Games agreed on.

"We want to do everything we can to make PayDay 2 as awesome as possible. In order to do that, we made the decision to triple the size of the crew. To ensure that we can keep the size of the team, we decided that the best approach was to introduce the Black Market update to the game."

Listo did not apologise for the introduction of microtransactions, but did point to the fact Overkill had now added in the chance for random drills to drop for free during gameplay. As for the drills themselves, they are now making money.

"From an economical standpoint however, completely based on statistics, we can already see that the Black Market update is working as we intended," he wrote. "Right now, things are looking pretty great."

As for why he had gone back on Overkill's previous promise, Listo could only say that times had changed, Payday 2 had not included microtransactions at launch like some games have done and that the whole matter had been overblown.

"At the time, there were games that were released with in-game microtransaction systems at launch; players were asked to pay for the full game, and then continue to spend money directly after the initial purchase," Listo reasoned.

"If you asked me then, there would be no way we would've added a system like we just did."

The introduction of microtransactions has only come after two years of paid-for and free additions to the game, albeit additions which were no longer as profitable as they once were.

"Two years ago people would have us instantly start work on PayDay 3, right after we released PayDay 2, like developers usually do.

"Instead, we decided to continue work on PayDay 2, because we wanted to make it an incredible co-op experience. 88 updates later, we have to ensure the future survival of the game.

"Fast forward to today, two-and-a-half years later, and the addition of the Black Market update. There's been a lot of articles written by a lot of people claiming a lot of things about us, our intentions and the effect this has on the community as a whole and the future of PayDay 2. It's a bit hard to take some of these people serious when you know they don't even play the game.

"I think the problem here really is people in positions of power in media and elsewhere making uninformed, clickbait articles about things that matter a lot to a lot of people, instead of doing some serious legwork to get their facts straight."

 

[udm]

"From an economical standpoint however, completely based on statistics, we can already see that the Black Market update is working as we intended," he wrote. "Right now, things are looking pretty great."

 

[Blaine]

I read up on all of this since I have a few friends who play, and man, what a shitshow. It's a game you have to buy, with a lot of expensive DLC, and now microtransactions on top of that. Talk about triple-dipping.

The sleaziest bit of info I uncovered is that the developers slightly nerfed all weapons across the board; the microtransaction skins slightly re-increase weapon stats so that they just barely reach certain thresholds.

For example, say there's a pistol that needs to deal 50 damage in order to kill enemies in a single headshot. Without one of the new pay-to-win skins adding +1 damage, it only deals 49 damage, meaning two headshots are required to down the enemy rather than just one.

 

[Jick Magger]

Haven't played the game for a fairly long time now, but all I really remember about it was that there were two kinds of people in the community: the ones who'd play it for the sake of enjoyment, and the ones who were obsessed with stealth.

This roughly sums up my experience with the latter:

 

[Papa Môlé]

The "we need to keep the game profitable" excuse is such horseshit. This isn't an MMO, all games are run on the host's machine. They aren't paying for any server upkeep beyond the matchfinding. There's no kinda of server quality control, if the host has hacks enabled or crashes you can't do a damn thing about it; just have your time be wasted. They don't "need" to do anything, including working on a sequel. People could play it as it is fine without them having to take action to keep it alive. I played Wolfenstein: ET, a free game, for years and years without any real updates and so did many others. In fact, all the actions they've taken have, as pointed out above, worked to kill the game.