Starbreeze, the developer behind the 2013 shooter Payday 2, has come under fire for the price hikes on their Payday 2: Infamous Collection DLC bundle. Fans viewed the price hikes as a discreet attempt to force players to pay for Payday 2’s new content-library subscription service. Starbreeze has reverted the price hikes and apologized for their lack of communication with fans, while also denying that the price change for the DLC bundle was related to their subscription service.
From November 2024 to August 2025, the price for the Infamous Collection bundle was around $118 dollars. However, in early September, the price for the bundle skyrocketed to roughly $170. When the pricing change was first implemented, Starbreeze didn’t release an official announcement or explanation regarding the new prices. A few weeks later, Starbreeze announced their subscription service for Payday 2, which would grant players access to all of the shooter’s DLC’s for either $4.99 a month or a discounted $19.99 for six months.
The sudden $50 price hike for the Infamous Collection and the subsequent release of Payday 2’s subscription service was scrutinized by fans. On the Payday subreddit, many fans found themselves frustrated by the situation. Several commenters called out that the original title was over 12 years old and shouldn’t be undergoing any price hikes, while others speculated that the price increases were a discreet way of forcing players to pay for the new subscription service. Some fans even enjoyed the idea of a DLC subscription service and found the prices reasonable, but they were reluctant to purchase it due to the Infamous Collection’s price hikes.
Starbreeze has since responded to these fan criticisms in a report by Game Developer. Starbreeze has apologized to fans, saying “we dropped the ball on…communicating with our community properly.” They respected fan criticism by saying that that fan “negative reactions [make] complete sense” and that they “messed up on this one.” They then affirmed that the price for the Infamous Collection will be reduced back to its original price of around $120, which is verified by the bundle’s current price on Steam. Starbreeze also claims that the release of the subscription service was “not considered at all” when they raised the price of the Infamous Collection. However, Starbreeze did acknowledge that they “should have realized how it would seem.”
The original price of the Payday 2: Infamous Collection has been restored, but the impacts of the price hikes on Starbreeze and the Payday playerbase remains to be seen.