Overwatch gave free loot boxes to many players. What does Blizzard say about this bug?
In the past few days, there were some puzzled faces in Overwatch when players logged into their accounts. Huh? Where did these 11 loot boxes come from? They weren’t earned or purchased!
Loot boxes are compensation for server issues
The reason for the 11 loot boxes is rather banal: Blizzard wanted to compensate players in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. These players suffered significantly from the DDoS attacks from September 9 to September 23 and could hardly enjoy reasonable gameplay during that time. To help players cope with the downtime, 11 loot boxes were given to all players who played on the affected servers during this time.
However, due to a bug in the system, some other players also received these free loot boxes. Players from Australia, in particular, have reported that they were credited loot boxes, but players from other countries are also affected.
By the way, Blizzard does not intend to “take away” anything from anyone or even suspend accounts. Those who have wrongfully acquired the 11 loot boxes are welcome to enjoy and keep the contents. This was stated in response to a concerned player’s question to Blizzard:
“You can definitely open the loot boxes and enjoy what you get. It’s a mistake on our part and we know it seems alarming, but they were sent for free and thus belong to you.”
Other regions do not seem to be receiving compensation, even though European and American servers were also affected by the DDoS attacks – however, the issues here were usually resolved within minutes.
For more news and articles about Blizzard’s hero shooter, you can visit our Overwatch game page.
