MultiVersus PS5, PS4 Dev Underfire for 'Bug' Allowing You to Buy Extra Lives

MultiVersus has re-released and we reckon it’s pretty good, as explained in our review. As is always with the case with free-to-play titles, though, its business model is being put under huge scrutiny. Many feel that the pace at which new characters can be unlocked is far too slow, and while it’s probable new in-game Events will speed up the process, fans aren’t happy.

Perhaps most egregious of all, however, is the allusion to a microtransaction for extra lives. In the current version of the game, the Looney difficulty for the fighter’s single player Rifts mode includes a bullet point with the following description: “Complete matches with a limited number of lives per day. (You can purchase more).” Looney mode isn’t supposed to be available until 10th July, but some players were able to access it early through a glitch, and discovered a single life costs 49 Gleamium (approximately $0.50).

According to an update from developer Player First Games, this is a “bug”. Here’s what it wrote on Discord and social media: “We’d also like to let you know that the option to purchase extra lives is a bug that has been addressed and is not an intended feature in the game.”

This is one of those rare occasions where the developer probably should have owned its mistake and acknowledged it as such. The reality is that the code currently exists within the game to buy extra lives, and we can’t imagine any scenario where such a feature would be present as part of a bug. Perhaps it intended to remove the option at launch after experimenting with it, but then that’s still not a bug, is it?

Honesty is the best policy, and while it’s ultimately a good thing Player First Games is getting rid of this microtransaction, it’s done unnecessary damage by seemingly lying about the situation instead of owning it.