The second phase of the Overwatch beta kicks off today and after being down for around two months, Blizzard is bringing their team shooter back into the public arena with a suite of changes.
One of the biggest is the inclusion of a brand new progression and reward system, which fans of games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, PAYDAY 2 and many, many others will find all too familiar.
In an interview with director Jeff Kaplan, the lid was lifted on what Team 4 — the internal descriptor for the team assigned to work on Overwatch — calls loot boxes. “Every time you level up we give you a reward,” Kaplan explained.
“Loot boxes are really cool because they have four items in them, and those four items can vary in quality and rarity. So just like WoW, Diablo or Hearthstone, we have Legendary items that come out of them, we’ve got Epic items, rare items and common items that come out of these loot boxes.”
Kaplan, who is also a vice president at Blizzard, added that all items were cosmetic and would have no impact on balance or gameplay. “There’s no competitive advantage, you don’t need to be a super high level player in order to really be viable in competitive Overwatch play or anything like that. All of the items are cosmetic.”
The introduction of loot boxes naturally led me to think of the CSGO and Dota 2 in-game economies, so I asked whether users would be able to spend real money. Kaplan said that wasn’t an option for the beta, but it was an option being actively considered.
“You cannot do that right now, when the beta comes back up loot boxes are only rewarded based off of game and player level,” he replied. “But we’ve had this system in for about two months internally, and it’s something that a lot of us really want is the ability to purchase additional loot boxes. So we’re definitely exploring if that’s a system we can pursue, and there’s a lot of interest around it. It’s definitely something we’d like to do.”
Comments
10 responses to “Overwatch Adds Loot Boxes, But You Can’t Pay Real Money For Them Yet”
omg what why would you….
Ohhh OK. PROLLY SHOULD HAVE LED WITH THAT. zero fucks given for cosmetic purchases if people want to spend money on that shite have at it.
Still no beta access. Sigh.
I love the new trend of full priced games having micro transactions, I really hope it keeps up and that it expands to pay to win in the future.
Would you prefer they charge money for all the future maps/heroes, or maybe just not have any future content at all? Post-release development costs money…
I find that when they charge money for a pack of content you get much more content per dollar.
You get maps, weapons, skins for 20 dollars vs a skin for one character for 7.99
I love it when people feel more entitled to their money then the people who provide services for them.
1) the game has a server – that costs money
2) the game has support – costs money
3) the game is going to have development – costs money
4) is going to have a range of playstyles games and active balancing -costs money
see where I’m going. See how all these things cost money for devs to make….I agree with the hate for when they charge it for core items and pay to win but overwatch( blizzard) decided to do it for mostly cosmetic things. I’m all down for that. Do what you got to do/
I would just prefer they didn’t make their money through gambling.
This is the smartest play Blizzard could make and it sounds great.
Everyone knows it costs money to run dedicated match-making servers, continue development and making maps, and continue to provide game balance changes. The way CS:GO has done it with cases works great and does not detract from the overall game experience.
I also have no issue with the higher purchase price. The fact is Free 2 Play is plagued by hackers, trolls, smurfs, etc. Games such as CS:GO which have a relatively low cost $15.00 RRP have ongoing issues with hackers because players are willing to risk getting caught knowing it will just cost $15 to get back in the game. Hopefully blizzards ban-hammer plus the higher entry fee will dissuade on-going hacker issues and keep the community clean.
Played 3 rounds this afternoon…. Went to dinner.
9:55PM rubber banding like a motherfuck. Unplayable especially when its a twitchy FPS..
Lockboxes were meh.
Oh no, here we go…