Payday 2 developer Starbreeze has launched a brand new subscription service to the 12-year-old heist shooter, bundling “full entry to greater than 65 DLCs, filled with heists, weapons, and cosmetics” “for a low month-to-month price” of $4.99 monthly, or $19.99 for six months. There are presently no choices for three-month or 12-monthly subscriptions.
The corporate stated the subscription will enable gamers to “discover Payday 2’s huge content material library at their very own tempo, mastering the artwork of heisting one crime at a time” and the subscription — accessible through Steam — “might be canceled at anytime.”
“With greater than a decade of content material behind Payday 2, we need to give gamers larger flexibility in how they expertise the sport,” stated Gustav Nisser, head of industrial at Starbreeze. “The subscription service makes it easy and cost-effective to take pleasure in every little thing PAYDAY 2 has to supply – whether or not you’re new to the sport or returning to discover DLCs you haven’t but performed. On the similar time, all present DLCs stay accessible for buy as earlier than. That is about giving gamers extra alternative.”
Crucially, nevertheless, the phrases of the subscription point out it solely applies to “all of the presently accessible Payday 2 DLCs so long as you’re subscribed,” leaving some gamers questioning if it’s going to cowl any doubtlessly new DLC but to come back, as Starbreeze continues to be periodically releasing new content material for the sport, largely lately with the Crude Awakening Heist in 2023.
“I perceive the concept and in equity it isn’t a horrible one, new gamers can subscribe for a month and see what it is all about with out absolutely committing,” commented one participant. “Some could play the sport on and off and so as a substitute of spending all that dosh without delay they subscribe for months they wanna play.
“The difficulty is the DLC bundle was hiked lately, the DLC is not all that spectacular, and a few of the DLC is priced stupidly for the little content material it has (like having 2-3 weapons for $10.95 aud for instance, that is ridiculous). That is one of these occasions the place they kinda cannot learn the room virtually just like the time they promised no DLC for Payday 2 then backtracked.”
“I wouldn’t even thoughts a lot in the event that they didn’t jack up the costs of bundles,” said another person.
The bundle they’re referring to is Payday 2 Infamous Collection, the bundle that incorporates each DLC launched since 2013. As a result of though it overtly introduced the subscription and its price, Starbreeze has quietly increased the price of the Infamous Collection by 50%, going from $100 to $150 without formal notification.
“There’s nothing fallacious with the subscription itself, it’s the Infamous Collection pricing change which is the issue,” suggested another person. “[W]ith this subscription, Starbreeze additionally determined to vastly enhance the worth of Infamous Collection, to basically make you pay for the subscription as a substitute, which is nuts.
“Additionally, with the current new heist for Payday 3 being costlier than common, how do we all know that the identical gained’t occur for Payday 3 with its DLCs and DLC packs in future?
What’s additionally worrying is that Starbreeze hasn’t stated something about this but.”
“It upsets me that such modifications are made quietly, as if hoping that nobody will discover,” added another, to which somebody responded: “It actually appears like they’re simply attempting to slide it underneath the radar and see if they’ll get away with it with out a main uproar. This sort of stuff erodes goodwill so quick.”
On the time of writing, Starbreeze has seemingly not publicly responded to fan considerations.
When Payday 3 launched in September 2023, we thought its cooperative heists had been “off to a powerful begin, even when the vault is a bit naked in the mean time.” It returned a Good 7/10.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years expertise working with some of the world’s largest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.