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Payday 2 Has Microtransactions

Jim Sterling Editorials n' Stuff

People want me to say that Payday 2 added microtransactions to its game, even though they said that would never happen. This is bollocks, obviously.

I was going to make this part of the next Bullshit Roundup, but the emails and comments and messages haven’t stopped, so here you go.

Payday 2 has microtransactions.

  • Corey

    I just find it fun that they pissed off the PC crowd (the crowd who give them the most money) about a year or so after they pissed off the console crowd.

    • https://goo.gl/jkhMSq Mana

      The PCMR considers this pay-to-win, will no longer support the game, and has already removed it from its curator.

      This game is pretty much done, if you ask me.

  • Edward Turvey

    Everybody happy now? No, I thought not.

  • Fish
  • Christopher Howell

    Oh gods I creamed my pants. This article is so amazing, so well written, so perfectly worded that I orgasmed multiple times per word while reading it.

    Thank god for Jim “Fucking” Stirling

  • https://twitter.com/Swahili_Jones Andrew Davis

    “Are you not entertained ?!” shouted Jim to the bloodthirsty crowd.
    Jim took a deep breath as he listened to the crowd’s response, reveling in the blood and mayhem around him.
    “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED ?!”
    The crowd cheered.

    • peter

      Perfect response to a perfect article.

  • bimmyz
  • goodbyejojo

    how many good guys are left? How many stay that way?

    • oraoraikuze

      There are no “good guys” in the video game industry, everybody has done something rotten in their history, there is no black and white, only shades of gray.

      • Henry Armitage

        and their shade of gray is somewhere in the same spectrum as a black hole….

      • MaximumTroll

        Not always. CD Projekt RED is still a great company, Tripwire has always been a great company (and unlike Overkill, didn’t break our trust due to their rising fame), Colossal Order fails to disappoint, and I can think of many other great examples.

        There may be grey, but that’s only because the spectrum’s too damn huge.

    • whiskytangofoxtrot

      There are no “good guys.” You should never put yourself in a position where you have to trust a developer/publisher to not screw you over after you’ve purchased their game. For single-player games that means always buying from a DRM-free source (and passing on the game entirely if no such source is available.) For multiplayer that means making sure that the game allows player-run servers in addition to being DRM-free.

      Unfortunately, very few games do that these days, even though it was common back when multiplayer gaming was first catching on in the days of Quake. It’s something we should be demanding, though.

  • Kyle Yager

    They’ll realize they fucked up soon enough. Until then I’m gonna check out the weapon balancing mentioned in the same update.

  • Guildenstern Von Kalte II

    Ahahaha! Love you Jim!

  • SilentPony

    Somehow I just know Konami is behind this…

  • NR_8_GK

    Guess they didn’t realize only Valve can get away with this stuff

  • 18650

    Never change Jim.

  • Tom Miles

    Jim, you are one of my favourite people in the universe next to Big Boss and my Wife. Every one of your tweets brings a smile to my face and the sass overload between the Payday 2 tweets, the Facebook status and now this article has me thanking God for you all over again. #JimSaw #FucKonami

  • artisticMink

    Stopped playing a few months ago as more and more DLC flooded the valley.

    Ii don’t despite the DLC, as Payday 2 was always a fun basegame. But things like splitting the heist and the character belonging to the heist in two seperate 10$ packages or just coming up with stuff that doesn’t really fit the setting (in my personal opinion) put me off quite a bit.

  • Sapphire Crook

    You answered our calls once, Jim.
    Now, the strings are attached.
    Dance, my puppet.
    WE OWN YOU NOW.

    This it totally how Email works.

  • Brodie Jones

    This is the kind of hard-hitting journalism I come to this site for.

  • 09philj

    On a more cheerful note, I got an asset flip taken down from Armor Games today.

    • dennett316

      Armor Games? Those guys who did religious-themed games on Newgrounds? What have they been doing?

      • 09philj

        The WHAT themed games? I think you have them confused with some other site. Or there’s a side to them I’ve not seen.

  • VeryImportantQuestion

    I love the people in the comments who are still trying to talk seriously about Payday 2 despite everything. Clearly the people asking for Jim’s comment never truly needed it; they just wanted to be near Jim when they talked amongst themselves about it. He could just have put the title.

  • TheGZeus

    YES. INFORMATION I DIDN’T NEED BUT LIKE TO HAVE.
    Seriously. Goodness, I’ve had too much coffee.

  • Skullcrusher416

    As a player who has played this for more than 800 hours, i was disgusted at first, but i have calmed down, relaxed and thought about it. While I still love this game and have pretty much all the DLC, I think this was something they could have left out or if they were gonna do this system, do it without having us pay more. I dont know im on neutral grounds on this one.

  • Gondab

    Not only microtransactions for skins CS:GO style, but the skins give you bonuses.

    • TwistedKris

      That is to make up for the fact they nerfed several weapons to hell in the same update, so that you now require the bonuses to even come close to performing as it did before. They did buff a few, but when a pistol does 3x the damage of a shotgun, you know something is wrong.

  • Viggo

    “Stop Emailing Me”
    Priceless.

  • Jonny

    Is this memes?

  • paul136

    I put 250 hours (this makes me feel sad) into this game on PC before I stopped playing it entirely about 6 months ago. Thanks to this news, they’re never going to win me back now, and they can forget Payday 3 for me at least. I can almost forgive paid cosmetic changes since I just never buy them, this is a step beyond.

  • matt

    Looks like Jim might have to push that Kickstarter Jimquistion back a week as it looks like a developer did a stupid.

    • paul136

      If the intended Jimquisition topic had to stop every time a developer did something stupid, he’d never have a chance to talk about anything else :)

      • Duncan Parker Newton-Gaines

        For several months it has been happening like that though, hence the backlog he complained about having in the latest Jimquisition.

    • Kintari

      Bonus Jimquisition, please please please!

  • Corvid

    “Perhaps we should get started on a new game.”
    “But we could still wring a little more money out of the old one!”
    “…And all it will cost us is our credibility and most of our banked goodwill.”
    “Is there some sort of point you’re trying to make? I’m not getting it.”
    “No, no, apparently I was just mistaken about what business we’re in. Carry on…”

  • ImaLemming

    I wonder how many people are going to keep emailing him because they took “Stop Emailing Me” as a greenlight to be a smartass.

  • Lucas5853

    I don’t get why CS:GO should be the only game with weapon skins.
    Given the lack of seriousness of Payday 2, weapon skins make sense. I think this is just going to be the same as when they nerfed stealth that time. People got angry, people calmed down. Just give it time. I mean have you seen those skins? They look fantastic but it is the random element to the microtransaction I actually have the issue with.

    • Veya

      The weapon skins aren’t the issue, they never were the issue, people actually requested them for a while.

      What hurt was three details: That it was included with Microtransactions, that it was added with Microtransactions in the Crimefest, a supposedly free series of rewards, and finally, that they add stats, making it a pretty big advantage for people that actually can shell out the money.

      If they had added it as a simple asthetic, people wouldn’t be as mad, if they had added them similar to mask patterns and colors without microtransactions, people would be happy, but they added it the worst way possible.

    • MaximumTroll

      You’re right, CSGO shouldn’t have it either. Valve started the bullshit train with microtransactions in paid games, and for that I will never forgive them.

    • Mourgraine

      People are pissed at the fact that you can literally buy items that give you objectively better guns than the ones normally found in-game. That’s what’s not cool about this update. Oh, and the fact that Crimefest is supposed to be FREE for all players. That’s a big deal too.

  • MaximumTroll

    Let it be known that Payday is an amazing game, backed by heavy research.

    First, you remain hidden.

    Under the surface, steal as much money as you can.
    Keep people from finding out about the schemes.
    When they find out, defend yourself to the bitter end and run out the door with as many sacks of cash as you can.
    Get in your van and get the f**k out of there.
    Show up later and repeat, to the point where it’s an appointment.
    —
    Overkill in a nutshell. Uh… wait, you didn’t think I was talking about the game itself, did you?

  • Jeffrey Hayes

    I have to say the “Stop Emailing Me” tag tickled me.

  • dennett316

    Muh-Muh-Muh MAXIMUM SASS!

  • http://fistshark.com/ Craig the War Boy

    Big Brother Jim has initiated an Official Party Statement. All Proles report to Sector 3 for Indoctrination and Reeducation. To accuse Big Brother Jim of inaction is thoughtcrime. If you know of someone committing thoughtcrime, it is your civic duty to report it to the neatest thoughtpolice.

    Big Brother Jim is watching you.

  • julian_m

    This makes me really sad because i bought and played payday quite a lot last year and was glad that it didnt have microtransactions things. It did have lots of dlc but some of it was free or like map packs were accessible in some way without the dlc, you just couldn’t host a heist on those maps. But, they started putting out more and more dlc which got out of hand which kept me away.

    But this makes me not want to go back to it ever again like I was planning to one day.

  • Michael Gram

    Jim, did you hear?
    Payday 2 has microtransactions!
    Aren’t I so helpful for personally telling you this?
    :3

  • Logan Graham

    Woo! Never buying that game!

  • http://www.youtube.com/chrisdragon Doom Video Vault

    Another game on the shitlist to never reinstall.

  • Sam

    You know what? I would have been okay with this one, given its low initial entry cost, but it’s pretty shit of them to go back on their word like that.

    • diamond

      Yeah most people wouldn’t have minded if they never made such a promise in the first place, but they’ve stooped even lower then Randy Pitchford, Tim Schaffer and Peter Molyneux combined.

  • http://youtube.com/user/Sylocat Sylocat

    Maybe have the Bullshit Roundup be an updating post? But that would mean you’d have to tell people to go back and re-read it… hmm.

  • Milestone_RP

    And here when I replied to the post on the Steam forum about how people were emailing Jim, I said out loud “oh man, poor Jim, he’s going to get this one all day”.
    I’m not shocked, tho. People are PISSED. This is kind of what happens when that line that’s crossed from the “Fee to Pay” Jimquisition gets crossed in real-time. After being told it wouldn’t happen.
    Won’t say anything else about this right now, since it’s apparently going to be in the next Bullshit Roundup, and the microtransactions don’t look like they’re going anywhere in the meantime.

  • Bradford Colton Pellerin

    Aaaaaand now I’m glad I never bought it. Was thinking about it, particularly when it was praised during a previous Jimquesition, and even more so when it came out for the new systems…

    But now? It can fuck off.

  • diamond

    I recently bought the GOTY edition on the Steam sale, so it’s unfortunate that Overkill are just as money-grubbing as Ubisoft were with AC: Unity.

  • Kintari

    I’m actually disappointed we won’t see a Jimquisition on this.

    Every missed flogging of bullshitters like Overkill is a learning opportunity for the next terrible dev on how they can get away with it.

    • diamond

      I’m sure he’ll mention it in one at some point.

    • Miles Saintborough

      Jim already covered the topic of microtransactions and lying devs. Payday 2 isn’t anything different so there’s nothing new to talk about other than “Oh, we got another one to add to the list.”

  • Swamp Lobster

    How does one fuck up so badly that they somehow make the contracts in TF2 look like a fucking charity by comparison?

  • Dragonzeanse

    Good to know that all that overpriced DLC wasn’t enough for them. I can’t believe the console port is actually the superior version, now.

    • kdr11k

      It isn’t. The microtransactions are a terrible precedent but so far they haven’t fucked up the game. The weapon rebalance on the other hand is weeeeird (but seems unrelated to the MT nonsense). But rebalance or not, the PC version has more content than the console one.

      • Nihilisaurus

        Err, they *have* screwed the game. All primary rifles are useless due to having their accuracy hammered into the ground, handguns do more damage than shotguns, crouching makes you less accurate, every weapon just got a huge damage buff so the game’s difficulty is now lower than ever despite the death of accuracy making it a skill-less mess. Oh and to top it off if you take a minigun with a cut down barrel you can zoom around the map like the goddamn Doom Marine on meth.

        Also your post-mission loot sometimes gets trashed in favour of giving you an advert to generously allow you the option to pay money for a random drop of a skin for a weapon, including *DLC weapons you don’t own*.

  • Butz

    I’m more surprised that Jim still reads e-mails from fans.

  • Alex Osbaldstone

    Jim don’t you think its time you hired someone part time to sift through your emails and filter out the noise? I get the impression you might be overwhelmed by your ever growing inbox and its making you cranky and bitter! You also run the risk of missing out on valuable feedback and info among the pages and pages of mindless drivel! You likely wont read this comment like you did when you first started thejimquistion.com and i understand why, so don’t get mad, get help!

  • ChaoticPesme

    I hesitated to send an email myself, but I figured that a thousand of people had already done the same.
    The only thing I haven’t said already on the forums is that… Why did Overkill thought it was a good idea in the 1st place ? “Let’s introduce microtransactions in our paid game on the 1st day of our “free updates” event ! That sure won’t backfire !”
    At that point I’m just wandering what the thought process and the approval process were like.

  • kdr11k

    And let’s not forget that Konami has rebalanced MGSV to make you more dependent on the FOB and punish players who try to play offline only.

  • Jakub Kucharski

    I love the way, that whole aricle says “I DONT CARE”. That’s Garme Journalizm.

  • El Minotoro

    I was super into the first Payday, and so I tried it out on release. I played that game like it was my job. But after a while it became a DLC delivery platform. Once the paid DLC started to appear with regularity, I stopped playing. I’d gotten 275 hours out of it in my first month (I was going through some stuff at the time) and so felt like I’d gotten my moneys worth.

    Six months later my friend wants me to show him all the cool stuff I know, turns out everything is different and my knowledge of the stealth system was completely outdated. And there’s still more DLC. Sure some of it’s free, like the not-Keanu Reeves version of John Wick for the movie. They couldn’t even get likeness rights for a DLC that was an ad for a film. And that DLC is still there afaik, long after the film is out of theatres.

    Just the sheer volume of DLC, the price of it and the way it stunts the players who choose not to buy or cannot buy the DLC all made me say fuck this fucking noise. Payday 2 became like a Borderlands game, a way for a company to just try and bombard me with ads for their infinite amount of DLC in an effort to wear me down. Why can’t a game just be a game and not a platform for selling me something extra?

    • kdr11k

      I think people would’ve been pretty unhappy if John Wick got removed after the movie stopped needing advertising…

      The one major point of powercreep that the DLCs added is shield-breaking weapons (various forms, be it shotgun slugs, sniper rifles, explosives or fire) but you pretty much only need one pack to get that and by now those have been down to 1.25$/€ quite a few times. Though in an online match you don’t even need that one pack because it’s enough if one player has a shield breaker and there are enough other players who have DLC that it doesn’t rely on you. And you can join matches using DLC maps without buying those either.

      Now yes, the new weapon balance is all kinds of fucked. I hope they do a major rework for that. Seems most weapons now spray like you installed a Funnel of Fun with weapon mods nerfed so much that it’s hard to correct for that and there’s nothing people hate more about FPSes than weapons that can’t even get the first shot on target. But I don’t think the weapon skins with stats compensate for that either (+4 stb or acc won’t fix these weapons).

      My current objection to the MTs is more about the principle of it, I don’t want to reach the point where it even becomes a real problem.

  • jet jet

    dont forget to e-mail jim about this.

  • http://twitter.com/icezolation/ icezolation

    Loved the hell out of Payday. Guess I’m glad I didn’t get too much into the second game. Not to get me wrong: Payday games have really satisfying gunplay once you get the hang of it. But I was already scared of the menu and loadout screens, getting items by picking a card and so on.

  • Rens Borkent

    dammit, I love payday.

    I’m not against micro-pay but. their should be a full list of what is in-game for the game price. and a list of the extra’s you don’t need but kind of want to have for a small price. that way we can see if we truely buy a full game or not. also we can deside if the game if worth it to buy on release or for 19,99 in a budget stash. later filling your game with the micro transactions and have the complete package for the release price with the micro transactions

  • http://www.jackpipsam.blogspot.com Mark Davenport

    The game is already over-priced as it is on console.