There has been a lot of criticism when it comes to loot boxes in games, and one of the most prominent to ever use them—Overwatch is doing away with the mechanic when it comes to the sequel.
IGN reports that during the Overwatch 2 reveal stream, it has been confirmed that loot boxes will be removed from the free-to-play iteration of the game. Lead hero designer Geoff Goodman said during the stream:
“Along with the free-to-play change we’re doing away with loot boxes entirely… We have a new battle pass model coming in, and we have a store as well, so players have a lot more control over how they interact with the game and acquire new content.”
We don’t know exactly how these battle passes will work, but we should get some more info soon, seeing that the game is set to release in October.
Admittedly the word ‘loot box’ has been considered problematic when it comes to recent games, and there was even some kind of lawsuit that made headlines that was arguing that loot boxes were a way to introduce gambling to children.
We don’t know how the new system works yet, but hopefully it will allow players to access content that they want even without having to spend too much of their IRL money. Let’s also hope that people who actually paid for the first game get their rewards when the sequel launches.
Overwatch 2 launches on Oct. 4 for PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
