‘Metal Gear Solid Online’ PC Beta Pulled Hours After Release Due To Microtransaction Exploit
Metal Gear Solid Online provided a helpful demonstration Wednesday of why beta testing is necessary. The PC beta for the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain‘s multiplayer mode went live and then was promptly taken down by Konami after an exploit was discovered by players.
“Due to a possible exploit, we’ve removed access to the [Metal Gear Online] Beta temporarily while a hotfix is being prepared,” a Konami Community Manager Robert Peeler announced in the Steam forums.
“Once the issue is addressed we’ll provide access to the Beta once again.”
The “possible exploit” turned out to be players discovering the ability to buy Metal Gear Solid Online‘s MB Coins without being charged, as Kotaku reports. That’s obviously a major problem for Konami as players racked up tons of transactions worth lots of money at no cost. It’s one thing for a game to launch with some bugs and glitches. It’s quite another for it to actively cause a developer to lose money.
MB Coins are the in-game currency that can be used to purchase in-game items such as boosters, cosmetic items, and Mother Base add-ons.
The most recent example of this is when Destiny players discovered they could receive items from the Sparrow Racing Record Book without purchasing the $10. Bungie quickly fixed that exploit and disabled players’ ability to equip those items without actually owning the Record Book.
Metal Gear Online first launched for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2015. That was a month after The Phantom Pain was released on all platforms. Konami made the decision to delay the game’s multiplayer in order to ensure it was released to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC fans at the same time.
It’s a bit odd that it took so long for the PC release of Phantom Pain‘s multiplayer to come out. However, the focus on getting Metal Gear Solid Online out to consoles first is understandable. The game sold millions on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, but has sold a little over 600,000 on PC, according to SteamSpy.
Survival mode is perhaps the most exciting part of the announcement as Metal Gear Online handles the gametype differently from other titles. Players are rewarded for match win streaks instead of individual performance in each round.
That’s on top of the other unique Metal Gear Online features such as being able to build and maintain your own Mother Base and needing to defend it against other players.
The other bit of good news is the DLC news demonstrates that Konami will at least continue to support Metal Gear Online following Hideo Kojima’s departure and the closing of Kojima Productions. The future of the franchise and AAA game development is in doubt for Konami, but The Phantom Pain will still receive updates for now.
Speaking of Kojima, he formed a brand new iteration of Kojima Productions in December. The studio inked a deal with Sony to make its first new game: a PlayStation 4 console exclusive. It will be on the PC, too.
[Image via Metal Gear Solid V]
