Third Parties and Game Content

I don't know how many of you play Payday 2, but recently they've had 3 things introduced dealing with 3 parties, specifically, with their announcement of a Walking Dead game by them they introduced a weapon; and a collaboration with the makers of Hotline Miami, introducing a Hotline Miami themed heist; and most recently, an update that introduces the character John Wick (the hitman from the movie named John Wick) as a new heister with a couple of new weapons and the ability to use 2 pistols at once.

In the forum, this last update (the John Wick one) has brought up a lot of controversy in the Payday 2 Steam forum, and I wonder what people think of third party entities in games.

My personal opinion that content loosely connected to new or other projects by the same studio is understandable if it is done with good taste. The same with collaborations with other studios, which Overkill (Payday 2's developers) did well by having a quality map and having it fit into the loose story that they have. Collaborations are understandible because there is a bit of a gaming community, and I believe game devs know what is good to add without making it feel forced so they can do it in good taste.

This John Wick thing though has just felt like it was done poorly, as the character John Wick feels like he was haphazardly thrown into the game, the background of his introduction is questionable, the voice acting for the character give him absolutely no personality, and the dual wielding pistols is a fun gimmick and nothing more (as you fire both guns almost simultaneously, you only get a small boost to ammo for using twice the ammo per shot, it does not benefit from other pistol skills, and you really can't hit much at medium range). It feels like it is nothing but an advertisement for the movie, and they decided to make it the 1.5 million secret stretch goal from Crimefest.