Epic Games Removing Loot Boxes From Rocket League Sets A Benchmark For The Gaming Industry

Epic Games, acquired Psyonix, the developer of Rocket League earlier this year. While that came as a pretty surprising move, it was a kind of welcome change for the game. For an industry-giant like Epic to back an Esport game, with a very strong community that is still at a nascent stage, was something the community looked at pretty optimistically. However, with that move, the surprises didn’t end. Soon after the acquisition, we got to know about the next big thing on the radar for Rocket League, that is, the removal of loot boxes from the game.

Epic Games announced that the game will no longer have loot boxes, and while the community stands divided on the decision and the implementation of the same, the move sets a very good precedent for the gaming industry. Existing crates in the game were converted into blueprints, which showed what item can be crafted by utilizing a set number of credits, depending on rarity and finish. Credits, of course, can be bought using real money. However, what’s praiseworthy is the removal of loot boxes, which depended on RNG, and indirectly supported unethical methods like gambling.

The biggest victim of loot boxes were children who get lured by the lucrative offerings and end up spending large sums of money, obviously because of the fact that they are not aware of the consequences. While the fact that the presence of microtransactions in a game still might lead to some of these impulsive purchases by children, at the end of the day, they still get what they see, and don’t get lured into paying for something which they have a less than 1% of chance of acquiring.

While the gaming community stands divided on the outlook about microtransactions, loot boxes are something a majority have been vocal about. While the governments in various countries have also been pretty vocal about loot boxes in general, Epic Games voluntarily dropping loot boxes is something that is praiseworthy. That being said, the community has been vocal about the pricing of the items in the store. They are a tad on the higher side, causing outrage by the community. Psyonix was quick to address the issue and eventually listened to the feedback by the fans by reducing the prices of the items.

Keeping all the hate the PC gaming community has against Epic Games for their exclusivity, they seem to be setting some good benchmarks for the industry.

 

9 thoughts on “Epic Games Removing Loot Boxes From Rocket League Sets A Benchmark For The Gaming Industry”

  1. Wauw, are you paid by EPIC or did you not actually see what they replaced the lootboxes with?
    I agree that lootboxes are awful but they replaced them with MTX that are so insanely overpriced, no one bought Psyonix BS when they said they listen to their community.

    1. Yeah. The community isn’t split. It’s literally that EVERYONE hates blueprints. I guess we all knew Epic Games would ruin Rocket League. RIP Rocket League trading community

    2. You and your article is fake news, the community is not spilt about the update being good. Everybody hates it! 90% of them hate it!

  2. Definitely must be endorsed by EPIC. While the removal of lootboxes is a step in the right direction, they clearly overpriced the hell out of everything and essentially broke the trading market. The crate system for (ROCKET LEAGUE ONLY) was pretty great in my opinion as well as the trading market amongst other players. With this whole new credit system ,ranking rarities of items with the Credit amount, the trading is a lot more based on what Psyonix deems as equivalent exchange as opposed to what the traders want. Everyone is going to be trying to even out the “value” of them rather than trading for what they personally think is cool or worth it. Not to mention the rocket pass with the old system were great hand in hand because of the “free” keys. With the new system in place 100 credits replacing keys in the pass doesn’t net you anything worthwhile. Just want them to either lower the prices even more or revert back to the old system. Which honestly won’t happen either

  3. Jeffrey S. Hysinger

    I miss the crates, but they needed to go ( at least this save me some $$$ ). I bought crates a lot. Buuuuuuut…… I don’t like the blueprints. And the black market stuff costing 20$ a piece…. Seriously??? I gave a lot for a Glorifier decal and now it’s 20 freaking bucks!!!

  4. Thank you to the “VOCAL” community about what is REALLY going on! Epic has ruined the RL. I agree the loot boxes needed to change but they just replaced it a greedy system that puts the focus on money for their pockets. F Epic!!

  5. Yeah this new blue print idea is weak AF, that’s why I just stick to LOLGA. Com and buy what u really want and they prices are pretty fair. #fucktheblueprints

  6. Anon, Samuel Rivera, Pinzurc, josh, and Jeffrey S. Hysinger are the same person.

    He came from N4G where he does the same thing, posts comment after comment with different accounts/profiles.

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