After the debacle with Battlefront II, EA plans to rethink its approach. In the future, there will be no more loot boxes. With one exception: Sports games like FIFA 18 will still retain randomly generated packages for real money.
What happened at EA? The publisher giant Electronic Arts (EA) recently appointed a new Chief Design Officer: Patrick Söderlund. He is also responsible for the monetization systems of EA games and shared some encouraging words regarding loot box critics in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz.
Loot boxes caused huge trouble
Image of the enemy: Loot box: One of Söderlund’s key statements was the abandonment of RNG loot boxes in upcoming EA games. This refers to all systems involving the purchase of mystery bags for real money in the game, which can contain a variety of items.
Rethinking after Battlefront II: This system borders on gambling, leading players to spend exorbitant amounts of money on often useless items, resulting in a massive shitstorm for Battlefront II, accompanied by image damage and economic losses.
No loot boxes, no pay-to-win – only cosmetic items!
Therefore, they now want to take a different approach to monetization: In the future, EA games will no longer contain loot boxes. Instead, players should be able to purchase precisely the items they really want.
No more pay-to-win! In the cash shops of Anthem, Battlefield 5, and others, there will only be purely cosmetic items. Not items that improve gameplay or provide advantages. All of this was present in Battlefront II, which further frustrated players.
Exception: FIFA and others
Does this apply to all EA games? No, because there is still an important exception: Sports games, like the upcoming FIFA 19, will continue to have their form of loot box. In FIFA, this would be the player packs for the “FIFA Ultimate Team” (FUT) mode.
Loot boxes are accepted in FIFA: This is because players have traditionally supported this mode without much criticism and are willing to spend money on player packages. Furthermore, Söderlund states, FUT is just one of many modes in a FIFA game.
Enough game for the money: There is still the story, online mode, tournaments, and plenty of updates. Players get enough for their money, even if they do not like the FUT mode. The mode with the loot boxes can be safely ignored. In Battlefront II, however, this was not possible, as loot boxes were an integral part of the progression system.
Söderlund’s statement on the topic is as follows:
One must view it from the perspective of fairness. Fairness is the most important thing. When someone purchases a product from us, they should receive full value for their money. There should be a fair economy in the game, so that one cannot pay for victory. We do not want people to spend money to be better than others. This is important to us. However, we observe the market and see that it is acceptable for people to pay for other things, such as how they look in games. That seems completely fine.
What do you think of EA’s shift in approach? Is it the end of loot boxes, or do you think EA will bring back the RNG mystery bags at the next opportunity?
