PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has taken the PC gaming community by storm this year, unseating H1Z1's King of the Kill mode as the premier battle royale survival shooter. Recently, the game has stirred up the type of storm no developer ever wants to see; the wrath of the community. The developers have elected to add microtransactions into the game for cosmetic items in the form of what they call the "crate and key system."
As a result, negative user reviews have gradually barraged PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' Steam page over the decision, many of which stand on the principle of the developer "going back on their word" about not having microtransactions.
Brendan "Playerunknown" Greene made a post on the game's Steam forum, attempting to clear the air and assuage concerns about the microtransactions. Greene expressed that while the "crate and key system" was always planned for the game's full release, there is a "need to test it prior to launch and at Early Access so that it is stable and ready to be fully introduced to our community."
Greene added that he believed that the crate and key system would "serve as the foundation of a healthy economy after launch" and "is an economy that would and should benefit all players – both who are willing to pay and who are not willing to pay for vanity items."
Greene also reiterated that it is a "purely optional system."
He also added:
"But still, I must admit that our messaging wasn’t very clear, so I extend my sincere apologies for the confusion caused. The process of communicating our intentions precisely to our fans and communities should have been done in a more careful and prudent manner. I’ve learned a lot, and we’ll try to communicate better moving forward."
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds plans to use part of the proceeds of the crate and key system towards the game's first eSports tournament that is going down at Gamescom 2017 later this month. They will also donate a portion of the proceeds to charity.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is available now on Steam and is coming soon to Xbox One.
