Extraction FPS Arena Breakout Infinite scraps pay-to-win feature for Steam debut

If there's one thing you want in a PvP game, it's parity. Fairness. Justice. Ok, maybe justice only rears its head when Batman logs onto Fortnite in his favorite Ariana Grande skin, but generally you don't want some players to have unfair advantages over others. This is a display of skill, not a competition to see who has spent the most money on the game. That was a recurring complaint with Arena Breakout Infinite, as players who have been involved in early access believed the Koen currency offers an unfair advantage. Thankfully, developer Morefun Studios is removing it ahead of the game's full release.

Koen is Arena Breakout Infinite's premium currency. Unlike other popular FPS games, however, it can be used to buy actual weapons, rather than just cosmetics. Although all weapons can be earned without shelling out your hard-earned cash, this easy skip allowed some players to be constantly kitted out with the very best gear, and others flailed behind as they grinded to get the same loadout.

This pay-to-win system suffered plenty of criticism, but some players defended it. Due to Arena Breakout Infinite's nature as an extraction game, bad players may still lose all that equipment they paid good money for. Cash wasn't a guaranteed substitute for skill, but it certainly helped.

Morefun Studios clearly feels the same way, or at least listens to player concerns, as it confirms that the Koen currency will be removed from the game ahead of its full launch on Steam. This was, apparently, always the plan.

"In its early phase, the purchasing Koen system offered some players a fast track to restart and recover — a purpose it has now fulfilled," the developer writes on X. "Therefore, with the Full Release, we have decided to officially bring it to an end, shifting our focus entirely toward more diverse, fair, and rewarding ways for players to earn resources."

This is just one of a range of changes to the extraction shooter ahead of its full release. Matchmaking has been improved, a kill cam has been added, and various levels of automation have been implemented for healing and storing loot. The trophy room has also been expanded to include modules that let you strengthen outside of raids.

As a free-to-play game, we can expect some other form of microtransaction to replace Koen, but hopefully it will embody that more "fair" nature the devs are now focusing on.

Arena Breakout Infinite releases on Steam on Monday, September 15. You can download it here.

If you can't wait that long for some shooty goodness, our list of the best multiplayer games has you covered. Make sure you're rocking the best gaming monitor, too—every frame counts.

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