Payday 2 has backtracked from the microtransactions it introduced for its annual "Crimefest" event, which convulsed the game's community in a wave of anger late last week.
"Drills," which are keys that allow players to get to the loot inside "safes" that they win during a job, will now be part of the random loot drops after each heist, developer Overkill wrote in the notes to a patch pushed out today.
The safes contain skins that modify and improve weapons. Previously a safe could only be drilled open by paying $2.49. Payday 2 players reacted angrily to what they considered a pay-to-win scheme, and were especially upset in light of Overkill's statements two years ago that the game "will have no micro-transactions otherwise." Payday 2 is co-developed by Overkill and Starbreeze Studios.
Though drills are now among the loot awarded free, they still can be bought. Items gained from safes in the PC version can also be sold and traded on Steam. Payday 2 joined the Steam Economy with Crimefest 2015, a 10-day even that began on Oct. 15.
The 741 MB title update also adds the First World Bank heist to Payday 2's Crime.Net, and fixes other sundry issues. More details are in the patch notes.