Angry Payday 2 players launch parody site, rip developer in AMA

Payday 2 fans are still ticked off at the microtransactions the heist-job shooter introduced about two weeks ago, and some have registered their continued disapproval with a biting parody of the official page for the game's recently concluded "Crimefest" event.

"The Road From Greedfest" mimics all the details of Overkill Software's site for the annual promotion, which this year introduced "drills," at a cost of $2.49 each, to open "safes" taken on a job and get at the loot inside. The weapon skins players collected increased the attributes of their arms, leading some to accuse the drills-and-safes setup as a pay-to-win scheme.

The community rebelled furiously against the microtransaction scheme, noting earlier comments by developers that Payday 2 would never implement them. Overkill relented last week, adding "drills" into the random, free loot drops players can receive, while still offering them for sale.

That apparently did little to quiet its disappointed gamers. Yesterday, Overkill's Almir Listo held a Reddit AMA on Payday's subreddit, where microtransactions were the No. 1 topic. Asked how Overkill squared promises that all content would be free with the introduction of the drill microtransactions on Crimefest's first day, Listo replied:

We thought — and still think — that this is a great addition to the game. We have a system that everyone can participate in, where players can earn actual money while playing Payday 2. If you don't want to purchase anything, that's completely fine, as you can just sell what you get and continue focusing on the core experience of Payday 2. Meanwhile, the added funds allow us to continue making the game better and better all the time.

That answer didn't go over well. In a lengthier reply, Listo complained of "people in positions of power in media and elsewhere making uninformed, clickbait articles ... instead of doing some serious legwork to get their facts straight." He said that Overkill's development team has tripled in size since Payday 2 was launched in 2013, and that six months ago Overkill cut prices on Payday 2 DLC by one-third or more to attract sales, but wasn't successful.

"We understand that there is a lot of fury, anger and disappointment with us adding this," Listo wrote. "From an economical standpoint however, completely based on statistics, we can already see that the Black Market update is working as we intended Going forward, we hope we can convince the parts of the community that resist this change that this was the right decision to do to ensure the stability of Overkill as an independent developer and the future growth of Payday 2."

Redditors responded with a nearly universal rejection of that rationale. "I hope you realize that Starbreeze's financial statements have been posted on this subreddit and that trying to pretend like you weren't making enough to support continued development isn't going to work," one shot back. "You're supporting Payday, multiple other games and a VR headset. ... [D]on't pretend you're not making a profit on Payday as is."

"The Road From Greedfest" drips with the same resentment. The top of the page cycles through unflattering or contradicted comments by Overkill. In an interactive map of goals mocking CrimeFest unlocks on the official site, it lists objectives such as lowering the game's concurrent users on Steam and bombing PayDay 2's Metacritic user score and Steam rating with negative reviews.

Worldmap is Polygon's Friday podcast recapping the week's top video game and pop culture news, with staff writers adding perspective and commentary. Check it out here: