Disastrous Arknights Endfield launch charges players random amounts for purchases: "My whole bank account balance of 1.2k got wiped"

Arknights: Endfield had everything going for it to have a huge, successful launch. The new real-time strategy RPG – with factory-building elements and anime girls with cat ears – surpassed more than 35 million pre-registrations before its release, but some eager players were immediately hit with a major issue revolving around PayPal and real money being incorrectly deducted from their balance.

Looking at the Endfield subreddit today tells a concerning tale, to say the least. "The devs need to get this fixed. I got charged for the $69.99 while I was trying to buy the monthly pass," one post reads. Meanwhile, another alleges: "My whole bank account balance of £1.2k got wiped clean and I've got bills to pay tomorrow, this is absolutely batshit insane and unacceptable."

One even shares a screenshot of an apparent €15,264.19 transaction, joking that "I will never financially recover from this."

I will never financially recover from this from r/Endfield

Thankfully, it's not taken too long for developer Hypergryph to acknowledge the situation and roll out a fix. Initially, a tweet posted to the game's official Twitter account noted that "we have received reports that the PayPal payment channel is currently undergoing temporary maintenance and upgrades," which might not have been the most reassuring message to those affected by erroneous payments. However, it noted, "Transactions involving abnormal item delivery or payment deduction will be handled accordingly."

Now though, a new update is a bit more clear. "Earlier today, we identified an issue with our payment system that affected a small number of purchases made via PayPal by players using the official launcher, as well as PayPal top-ups made through topup.gryphline.com," it explains. "In these cases, there was an inconsistency between the order and item delivery. The issue only impacted a limited set of orders."

According to the account, PayPal payments were disabled little over an hour after the issue was first reported, and around seven hours after that, the team had "completed a full review of all PayPal transactions and identified the affected transactions." Shortly after, "we began issuing full refunds for all PayPal orders," and "all refunds are expected to be completed within four hours."

This was posted well, almost four hours ago, so the process should be complete around now. Players are encouraged to reach out to the Arknights: Endfield support team if they don't get their money back.

"Providing a stable and reliable service is a top priority for us," the post continues. "Data security is foundational to our services and a core priority for GRYPHLINE. The PayPal payment option will remain disabled and will only be re-enabled after the issue has been fully resolved and thoroughly tested. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience."

Avoid transactions altogether and use these Arknights Endfield codes to get a selection of in-game currency and resources for free!