Unlike games such as Star Wars Battlefront 2, Rocket League has never had pay to win loot boxes. The crates that Psyonix would drop every few months would contain some cool cosmetics and maybe a new car body but nothing that would give a player a distinct advantage over another one. Despite this, Psyonix has decided to follow the example of their new owners Epic Games and is going to phase out randomized loot boxes by the end of the year.
The announcement has left users with a lot more questions than answers like, "What will happen to my current crates?" or "will new crates be non randomized?" but the decision seems to be very much final.
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While traders will miss the economy that randomized loot boxes created, we have seen a positive trend in the games industry away from such micro transactions. For games targeted toward younger audiences, essentially gambling items like randomized loot boxes (comparable to a slot machine) should not exist.
The Psyonix team are simply following the industry lead that Epic Games did with their flagship Fortnite where micro-transactions result in actual purchases (you buy a skin you get a skin) which might mean you can't pay $1.99 to potentially unlock a big-ticket item, you will never get "scammed" by the rng loot gods of old.
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Psyonix has stated that they will be changing direction later this year, and all the current crates will not "disappear" but they will clarify how they plan to phase out the old way of distributing new items. This will not affect DLC content such as the Batmobile or the MLB fan pack as they are not randomized occurrences.
I would love to see mobile gaming companies that produce titles that are played primarily by a younger audience adopt this model because I feel predatory behavior that encourages players to spend more than they should for digital only content is immoral and a stain on the video gaming community. For games that are for adults (aka 18+) this kind of content is okay because at least players will have an understanding of spending their money, whereas younger audiences will either be spending their parents money or using money meant for more important purchases on nearly meaningless micro-transactions.
Some in the community will complain that removing crates will hurt their profit (rip Jonsandman's crate opening vids), but this is for the greater good of both the Rocket League and gaming community as a whole.
Do you agree or disagree with our take? Comment your thoughts below!