Gamers are in outcry today after it was discovered zombie survival game H1Z1 includes certain ‘pay2win’ mechanics that developers, and even the SOE President himself said wouldn’t be there.
The issue is with the H1Z1’s purchasable ‘airdrops’. You can purchase an airdrop at any time with real money. Once purchased, an airdrop will be placed near you, and you can receive different items, mainly ammo, weapons and healing items. The problem is, building up to the games early access release, gamers were led to believe by SOE that there would be no way to purchase ammo or weapons within the game. Here is a quote from SOE President John Smedley from eight months ago:
‘We will NOT be selling Guns, Ammo, Food, Water… i.e. That’s kind of the whole game and it would suck in our opinion if we did that.’
H1Z1 game designer Adam Clegg also stated four days ago on a H1Z1 Stream:
‘You can’t buy ammo, you can’t buy guns, you can’t get them out of a crate, there is zero way.’
Both of these statements seem to be false. H1Z1 released yesterday as an early access title on Steam for £14.99 even though the game is intended to be free to play once completed. Gamers who purchased it have made their complaints known to SOE.
SOE President John Smedley has replied to complaints with the following tweet:
anyone that wants to "complain" about H1Z1 being P2W shouldn't buy it. In fact I encourage you not to. Let's not let facts get in the way.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) January 15, 2015
Source: Reddit