StarDrone Extreme on Playstation Vita recently got into a bit of a squabble due to its side content. The pinball game that centers itself on motion and momentum offered players an additional “Level Skipper DLC” for a premium fee of $0.99. For this, it got flak from press and players alike that it unfairly locked away content for those unable to reach it and required lesser skilled players to pay extra or “pay to win.”

In light of this, Founder and CEO of Beatshapers, Alexey Menshikov apologized and now offers the controversial DLC for free, stating: “We would like to update that we, together with SCEE, made [the] controversial StarDrone Extreme Level Skip DLC completely free. Sometimes we [make] wrong decisions and [we] would like to apologize for that.”

He has also asked media outlets to update their reviews, if such a thing is possible.

Personally, this seems like a total non-issue. First off, pay-to-win schemes are hardly new. Secondly, games that punish inability aren’t a novel addition either. There are a ton of recent games (hold off any Battletoads reference) that punish ignorance, instead of rewarding skill. Even Rayman Origins holds off progress until a certain amount of items are collected.  Getting mad for having an option on the side to alleviate that with money seems so redundant in an era where just about every MMO does the same.

It doesn’t make it right though; it’s just a horrible design choice developers sometimes refer to when trying to create a challenge. If anything, let this be a lesson that a challenge shouldn’t involve needless trial and error frustration. Create a challenge that accepts all takers and rewards accordingly to skill. That way, everyone gets the basic experience at the very least.