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PayDay 2 Gets Microtransactions, Despite Devs Promising It Wouldn’t

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Payday 2 microtransactions

Payday 2 now has microtransactions, despite the game’s developers promising on multiple occasions that wouldn’t happen. Overkill Software released an update for the PC version of the game, called The Black Market Update, that adds microtransactions for gameplay-impacting items that come through random drops. So it’s payday for Payday 2 players (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Overkill has previously stated on multiple occasions that microtransactions would never be added to Payday 2.

“Vlad’s brand new Weapons Deal lets you bring out the very best in your favorite guns with a huge update to the Black Market,” the update’s website reads. “This Weapons Deal opens up a brand new way of allowing you to personalize your weapons with skins, mods and more!

The website explains how random items will appear in-game via safes. Those safes are hard to open, and require a special drill in order to be breached. Once a safe is opened, the player gets a randomly selected weapon skin that adds new abilities to their gun. Those skins can be traded in the Steam Community, creating a new in-game economy.

What the website isn’t so keen to show off upfront is that those special drills cost $2.50 a piece. That might be because purchasing a drill in-game is an outright microtransaction, something Overkill Software promised they wouldn’t introduce to Payday 2. For example, Payday 2 producer Almir Listo wrote back in early 2013 “we’ve made it clear that Payday 2 will have no micro-transactions whatsoever (shame on you if you thought otherwise!)”

Then, a month later, Payday 2 lead designer David Goldfarb bluntly told Gamespot “No. No. God, I hope not. Never. No.” That sounded pretty final at the time, but it seems things have changed at Overkill. Goldfarb has since left, though he said he didn’t leave because of any disagreement with the company.

Whatever the reason for the decision, players aren’t taking it well. There’s a huge thread on Reddit, titled “F*** you overkill,” and the game’s Steam page now has a pile of negative reviews.

Rhiannon likes video games and she likes writing, so she decided to combine them. As well as writing about video games, she also belts out the occasional science fiction or fantasy story, edits videos, and eats strawberry oreos. In that order.

Gaming

Sony Has a “Monopoly” on the High-End Japanese Gaming Market, According to a US Senator

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The never-ending saga surrounding Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has a new participant.  Today, Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from the state of Washington, said some things about the subject that were hard to understand.

The senator, whose remarks were reported on by ResetEra, spoke at a Senate finance committee hearing on “the president’s 2023 Trade Policy Plan,” which we are sure was quite interesting.

Senator Cantwell said that she had been told that Sony “controls a monopoly of 98% of the high-end game market” despite the fact that “Japan’s government has allowed Sony to engage in blatant anti-competitive conduct through exclusive deals and payments to game publishers, establishing games that are among the most popular in Japan.”

This 98% statistic is highly deceptive because it ignores PC, Nintendo, and mobile games and instead refers to Sony’s adoption rate over Microsoft in Sony’s native country of Japan, a fact that shouldn’t surprise anyone who is even somewhat familiar with the video game business.

What can we do to rectify these problems and create a level playing field, she said of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai after charging Japan’s Federal Trade Commission with improperly failing to look into this purported “exclusionary conduct”?

It is absurd to claim that Sony has a monopoly on the Japanese video game market, as Luke Plunkett of Kotaku correctly points out, “because Sony doesn’t even have a 98% share of the market for the God of War series, a title they own, as Steam is getting 30% of every sale on PC.”

It goes without saying that we can’t expect elected officials to be experts in every field, but this is a visible step at a time when the ongoing attempt to buy the company is at a very important point.

Is it significant that Microsoft, along with Nintendo, maintains its headquarters in Redmond, Washington—Senator Cantwell’s district—or that Microsoft has given Cantwell more than $500,000 over the past two decades?  Let us leave that up to you.

 

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Consoles

Eating trash, Pizza Possum destroys the PS5

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Pizza Possum is an arcade action game in which you, a possum, attempt to consume as much trash as you can without being discovered.  It is a web-based sequel to the anarchy simulator Untitled Goose Game.It will eventually be available on the PS5.

We couldn’t help but notice that the possum in the title doesn’t look like the cute Australian possum that comes out at night to visit people.On the other hand, it looks like the horrible North American opossums are the ones that will attack trash cans and cause general chaos.Even though we think the second choice was better in terms of theme, we prefer the first one and are happy to explain why.

Your thoughts on Pizza Possum?  Does it possess the necessary mass appeal to successfully skitter along the back fenceline while setting the dog off in the process?

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The Mercenaries, a free piece of DLC for Resident Evil 4 Remake, launches on April 7

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Resident Evil 4 is now out, and the excellent remake can be bought right away.Even though you probably plan to play it all this weekend, you can take comfort in the fact that The Mercenaries, Resident Evil’s almost-required challenge mode, will be available as free DLC on April 7.

The mode’s exact details are still unknown, but if it’s anything like previous versions, you can expect some pretty hard tasks to test your skills.

You’re stumped about something? If you are still debating whether to purchase Resident Evil 4 Remake, be sure to look at our exhaustive guide for the answer or our in-depth review. Are you spending this weekend playing Resident Evil 4? Are you anticipating The Mercenaries?

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