A perk that boosts XP and cash has been added to the microtransaction list for Payday 2, causing unrest within the game’s community.
Microtransactions are only a recent addition to the game and implement a system of safes that are rewarded to players for completing matches; within these safes lie various skins for the weapons used in the game. Unfortunately, the safes are opened only through the one-time use of a purchasable drill. Overkill has since patched the game to allow the drills to drop from gameplay as well, after a flood of criticism.
With the recent update, Overkill has inserted an additional two safes with weapon skins via the ‘Team Boost’ perk. Aptly named, the perk allows the entire team to gain additional XP and cash when only one player has an aforementioned skin on their weapon; the perk also allows a stacking effect when multiple players use the skins.
The Completely Overkill Safe continues the trend by dropping 1 of 25 exclusive weapon skins; unfortunately, this safe was only provided to those who played during the Hypetrain event and purchased a Completely Overkill pack. To make matters worse, players have reported that drops are of varying quality with some feeling that their money has been wasted by receiving poor skins from the same paid safe that may drop a high-quality skin for another.
The community’s anger, in addition to the current disdain for microtransactions, has coalesced into a genuine protest; Steam Moderators for the forums of Payday 2 have gone on strike until the situation is resolved. One of the moderators, Ashley, has stated, “I like to believe that I am not unreasonable but unfortunately the situation constantly degraded. We will no longer refuse to work if we are given a public interview with a member of Overkill. We want to be heard and see what Overkill are willing to do to fix the situation.”
As of now, there has been no official response from Overkill regarding the controversy surrounding their updates.