A controversial revision of the cards in Paladins is making waves. Not only do fans believe the system is “Pay2Win,” but developers are also not fond of it. However, the studio bosses seem to be pushing the system through. Developers complained about this to the gaming site IGN. Now the system is being retracted, while the head defends it.
For a long time, Paladins was considered a good alternative to Overwatch with a fair Free2Play system. Harsh criticism erupted when Hi-Rez introduced the Open Beta 64 with the new system “Cards Unbound”. Fans hated it and found it clearly “Pay2Win.”
Apparently, there was an internal rebellion at Hi-Rez regarding this system. After a series of very strange maneuvers, “Cards Unbound” is now disappearing from Paladins.
Developers of Paladins revolt, complain to gaming press
The criticism in the forum regarding “Cards Unbound” was publicly audible at the end of 2017.
However, it remained hidden that there was also such controversy within the studio that some developers rebelled against the system. They contacted the US site IGN and bitterly complained about the system: It would be Pay2Win.
Cards Unbound was the worst thing that could have happened to the game. The developers who spoke with IGN said they did not want to support it. However, the bosses pushed it through against the will of most of the developers.
IGN did not publish this statement, but went through the proper channels and spoke with their superiors.
Head of Paladins thinks: Well, people are slowly getting used to it
The head of Paladins, Todd Harris, admits in a conversation with IGN that there were indeed significant problems with the change. This was mainly due to the timing.
The new card system came about in November, precisely when there was so much trouble regarding loot boxes in Destiny 2 or Star Wars Battlefront 2. That turned out to be unfortunate.
However, Harris thinks that the excitement is slowly dying down and new players are getting used to the system.
The article containing the anonymous criticism of Paladins’ developers and the statements from Harris was published yesterday on IGN.
Paladins retracts Pay2Win cards after all
However, these statements from Harris were probably already outdated shortly thereafter. The Paladins team announced just a few hours after Harris’s statements that they would indeed retract the “Cards Unbound” system in the upcoming updates.
In the producer letter, it states that “Cards Unbound” were indeed successful and brought in more users and money, but they are hearing the extremely negative feedback.
It seems that Hi-Rez made several decisions yesterday:
Paladins retracts Battlegrounds after a few hours, calls it YOLO
