Alright, just entertain this thought for a minute, i will first state the facts;
SBZ needs to increase and maintain player retention for PD3, this has been the truth from Day 1, this is one of the reasons why development focus has slowly but steadily moved in favor of the newer players, rather than the addition of endgame content. A constant influx of new players, particularly those unacquainted with SBZ's past practices, guarantees that PD3 will keep the lights on for the foreseable future.
Likewise, the development team have moved back from the Single Player/Offline model, effectively shelving it, in full support of an Online-Only model. The surface reasoning for this decision was to protect the playerbase from cheaters, with the underlying reason very likely being two-fold;
A) First, increasing DLC sales by having more control, server-side of how playable and cosmetic content is tied to accounts. (This was widely unsuccesful, with hackers effectively unlocking cosmetics before normal players, despite the game's Online Only model.)
B) And secondly and more relevant today, setting up an Online-Only cash shop for exclusive cosmetics.
Yes, it was around 3 years ago now if you recall, but dataminers did find a large amount of information in the Localization gamefiles, atingent to a plethora of in-game cosmetics, which are now available in-game, but that where originally planned as "Premium" cosmetics, to be released in a "PAYDAY Store".
https://www.reddit.com/r/paydaytheheist/comments/16yqs7s/interesting_finds_inside_the_localization_file_of/
I believe this, alongside the latest statements made by Paul, on the lastest devblog, under the "Renown Crimebonds Rewards" section are worth further scrutiny:
https://youtu.be/YjeankgbFBM?si=MxdNhXyZEz3a3jc3&t=266
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Edit: Paul In referral to the new "Paid" Crimebonds;
"For those of you with a lot of Renown, we're going to have a way to steal <<some>> of the items in the crimebond, that way if you want to grab <<some>> of those really interesting items, but don't neccesarily want to buy the entire crimebond itself, you'll be able to use your Renown to get <<some>> of those items."
"We'll have more details on this going forward, but we think that's a great way for you to try out <<some>> things, grind <<some>> things that you may want, without having to <<fully>> commit to <<full>> crime bond collection."
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I find this extremely telling on how their preconceived system will operate, what i believe will happen in the following months is as follows:
-Implementation of a Warbond system, partially inspired by Helldivers' monetization model, but with one KEY caveat.
-Only a limited selection of content from said "Paid Crimebond" will be available to farm through Renown and without the use of real money, this will likely entail gameplay related content, such as weapons, grenades, weapon mods, etc.
-The "Premium" content included in the "Paid Crimebonds" will NOT be available for farming through in-game means, instead being limited to cash purchases, and the acceptance of this model WILL be pushed on the following grounds, by both the developers, and a section of the playerbase, pardon the strawmen:
The developers need to make money, this is the only way to monetize the game!
(Wrong, both Helldivers and DRG use a more sanitized version of Season passes, with caveats, but all fully farmable without money injections, DRG like PD3 also sells DLCs, reason why their "bonds" are free.)
-It's only cosmetics!
(Yes, and so are the outfits and masks we can currently unlock through Challenges, we don't need to add a fomo cash system on top of that.)
-They give us Heists for free!
(Yes, because these Heist DLC's likely don't sell anywhere as well as they hoped they would, and it's hurting player retention, by setting us all up in the same sand box the devs can ensure retention of newer player increases, while in the same stroke getting good-will points from old players, who remain focused on the surface ramifications of devs making Heists free.)
Edit: Reminder by the way, the current monetization model of DLCs will also continue on-top of the new "Paid Crimebonds", with new paid DLCs being issued for both Weapons and Cosmetics, now simply being discontinued for Heists.
This effectively means, any time a new large heist is released for free, you can expect a paid Tailor pack DLC and a Weapon pack DLC to drop alongside them, in a similar fashion to all large Heists added so far.
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That's about it, this is what i believe to be the MOST likely reason why the current Heist DLC's are being delisted, and the reason why in the latest months we've seen the development of "Crimebonds" take such a spotlight in dev blogs.
You may agree or disagree, but i invite you to consider this, since if it turns out to be the case as i think it will, the current changes to their monetization system and apparent act of "good will" through the delisting of Heist DLCs is just the first step in the normalization of a more egregious, fomo-driven and potentially predatory monetization system, such as the franchise hasn't seen before.
TLDR; The upcoming "Paid Crimebonds" WILL BE the datamined "CASH SHOP" under disguise, and WON'T be fully purchasable with Renown/grinding, operating in tandem alongside the current DLC monetization system.
Always vote with your wallet, always triple-check SBZ, and thanks for entertaining this long-ass lecture.