Overkill: Payday 2 microtransactions are ‘not a success if people are angry’

In a long discussion with Steam mods

Sit down and get comfortable, ladies and gentlemen, for the next gripping chapter of the ‘When Will Overkill Stop Being Shitty’ Chronicles begins now!

You may remember a while ago that the Payday 2 Steam community moderators went on strike after having to not only put up with Overkill making people angry time and time again, but also with the resulting death threats aimed towards them from people who think that’s a totally reasonable and okay thing to do to unpaid volunteers (spoilers: it isn’t).

As part of the strike, the moderators wanted to have a frank and open discussion with Overkill about its recent actions, and surprisingly that’s actually happened. Sort of. Up top you can watch a two-hour long interview with Overkill’s Almir Listo, which ultimately devolves into Listo conveniently dodging every question posed to him.

The moderators and Listo discuss everything that’s gone down at Overkill in the last couple of months, including the Crimefest update that introduced microtransactions, as well as the Completely Overkill Pack which resulted in the moderator strike.

The main thing to take away from this is that Listo seems to believe the problem wasn’t Overkill lying about microtransactions, nor was it basing the reward for buying a $20 pack months ago on the same microtransaction weapon skins that have had such a negative reception. He argues that he simply didn’t communicate what Overkill is doing with the game well enough:

We’ve always had a very strong relationship with our core community, and the last few months it feels like that’s slipped away. And I’m incredibly saddened by that, y’know? And we have to work hard to regain the trust that was lost.

Worth noting that none of that “regaining trust” seems to include removing the microtransaction system. In fact, he seems to suggest he still thinks microtransactions are a good thing, even if he does admit he doesn’t consider them a success:

We could’ve done much better to make people feel appreciated because it’s not a success if people are angry. That’s a bad thing, that’s a really, really bad thing. It doesn’t matter how good of a feature you release, if people are angry, they’re angry, and that’s what people are going to focus on.

Now there are two ways to take this. First one, and the one I personally lean toward, is that this is just PR guff that won’t result in any meaningful change at Overkill. Listo comes across in this interview as very much wanting just to placate the moderators enough without committing to any future course of action that would make the players happy.

The other way to take this is that maybe it is a sign of things changing. Overkill has always been a rather vocal developer, yet it’s never been good at taking in player feedback. The fact this interview happened with the community could be a sign that it is trying to make that move from just telling players what’s what to being more communicative in the future.

So, reckon things are changing at Overkill, or will it just stick its head in the sand as usual?