MultiVersus developers say an in-game option to purchase more lives with real money was 'a bug'

The makers of MultiVersus say an option giving players the ability to purchase more lives with real money during campaign missions is in fact «a bug,» and not a feature that's meant to be in the game. As you might imagine, I—and lots of other people—have questions.

Warner Bros' answer to Smash Bros. made a big return last week after almost a year of dormancy, bringing with it a new campaign mode, which includes the ability to replenish lives with real money. As someone who spent many an hour exchanging money for life in various local arcades that struck me as not a particularly big deal, but given the reaction to the option on Reddit, many MultilVersus fans felt differently. 

Under the bug, players could buy a full refill of lives—the number wasn't specified, but reportedly six—for $10. As some Redditors pointed out, though, it will actually be even more than that: A bundle of 1,000 Gleamium in-game currency is $10 but the full refill costs 1,004 Gleamium, so you're going to have to pony up for a second, smaller pack as well.

In a subsequent message posted to Twitter, Player First Games laid out some broad-strokes plans for future MultiVersus updates, including performance improvements, the addition of end-of-game stats, and the option to turn off team colors. 

«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,» the studio tweeted.

I am not a programmer so it's possible I'm off base here, but my understanding of «bug» is a malfunction: Developers did something, it didn't work, and they have to fix it. At first blush, that doesn't seem to be the case here, as this is obviously an option intentionally developed for the game. Some players have subsequently said, however, that the «bug» in question isn't the feature itself, but the fact that it's available at the «Insanity» difficulty level.

The «Looney» difficulty, the highest in the game, states that players must