Payday 2 comes to SteamOS, goes free to play until end of March

Payday 2 is now available for SteamOS, which will come as good news for those of you packing a Steam Machine, or who intend to pick one up in the relatively near future. To celebrate the happy day, Overkill has put the game on sale for 75 percent off its regular price, dropping it to $5/£4; even better, it’s free to play for everyone until March 31.

It’s difficult to tell from the state of the comments posted in response to the announcement on Steam, but the general tone suggests that Payday players have not entirely forgiven Overkill for adding microtransactions to the game last autumn. That happened despite a promise that it wouldn’t, although Game Director David Goldfarb defended the move in a follow-up AMA when he pointed out that the commitment was made very early in the game’s development. Even so, the reaction was intensely vitriolic and remarkably sustained, as demonstrated by the less-than-unanimously-happy response to the release of the Goat Simulator game mode in January.

Nonetheless, free is free, and of course the SteamOS version of Payday 2 will be free for anyone who already owns the original release. Other Payday 2 content, including the Wolf Pack DLC, Goat Simulator Heist, Point Break Heists, and the GOTY Edition, is also on sale for 75 percent off during the free-to-play period, as is the original Payday: The Heist.