Gamers Want Overwatch 2 Loot Boxes Again, And Gaming Is Regressing

Overwatch 2 is bringing back loot boxes. You’d think, given their reputation, this would be a cause for disgust and outrage. And yet, the reaction has been mixed. While some have been burned before or are against the gambling mechanics on principle, others see this as a cause for celebration. New Overwatch is bad, old Overwatch was good. Old Overwatch had loot boxes. Ergo, all grey things are elephants.

It feels like a collective audience regression that we now accept loot boxes as being necessary to having a good time simply because the Overwatch 2 battle pass system offered such an impossibly steep hill to climb. But this is not just an Overwatch issue. We have developed Stockholm Syndrome for the ways our money is slurped out of our pockets by corporations, and I’m not sure where gaming goes from here.

Genshin Impact Already Won Over Its Paying Customers

The obvious example is Genshin Impact. It recently lost an FTC court case regarding its gacha odds, in a ruling that essentially decided it was deceiving its players with low odds. You can read a full breakdown of the case here, which includes a statement from Genshin’s studio, MiHoYo, accepting the fine imposed on it but defending its operation and offering a defence to the ruling. What’s interesting is that people were on Genshin Impact’s side about this.

While reactions are mixed on Overwatch’s loot boxes, there didn’t seem to be many active Genshin Impact players who felt the FTC had gotten this one right. While the law felt players were being taken advantage of, players themselves disagreed vehemently. I admit I’m not an expert on these laws, and there are holes in the FTC’s approach (Genshin Impact being singled out, when sister games Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero have near identical systems is odd), but a few years ago it would have been unthinkable that players stood on the side of battle passes, loot boxes, and gacha.

Perhaps they are defended by those embarrassed by them. I enjoy playing this, I am smart, therefore this mechanic cannot be bad. Perhaps I’m being patronising there – Overwatch and Genshin are both free, and perhaps it is reasonable that the most committed fans pay what is essentially a subscription to get the best out of the game. But I gotta tell you, it feels bad to see fans defending loot boxes like this. Not merely offering perspective on one specific way in which they are implemented, but offering wholesale approval of the practice.

Loot Boxes Still Make Money

Of course, loot boxes never went away entirely. EA FC Ultimate Team (plus its cousins at Madden, NBA 2K, and the rest) rely on virtual packs of cards, which are the clearest example of loot boxes in gaming. These make billions, even if earnings have been steadily declining, and most of that income comes from otherwise casual players who only play two or three games a year.

However, there is an old-fashioned hatred in these communities. They would be quick to point out the underhanded thievery inherent in these mechanics. Whether they too would celebrate their return if they were replaced by something perceived as ‘worse’ is a possibility, but I doubt as many would leap to their defence as have for Overwatch 2.

But then, maybe that in itself is the point. Those who play Overwatch may also only play a handful of games, but it is more of a ‘gamer’s game’ than EA FC. Overwatch fans, at a hardcore level, are more plugged into the gaming community than similarly intense EA FC fans, who tend to make the jump from being fans of the real-life sport. And gaming has gotten warmer to subscription models, battle passes, and other ways in which games manage to heat our wallets to the point of monetary evaporation.

We Replaced Microtransactions With Fake Money

There was a big push against generic microtransactions and traditional loot boxes five or six years ago, and since then games have come up with alternative ways to make money. Cosmetics only, pay-to-skip, buying currency that can be obtained via grinding, cooldown meters that can be hurried along by pennies… there are now dozens of ways for games to make you drop your cash.

Things used to be much simpler, in a way, which may be why we yearn to return to it. You either bought an item or character for a sticker price, or you bought a raffle ticket and hoped their number came out. Now you can buy crystals that convert into aether that you can transform into gold that you can use to skip the battle pass stage if you’re a Premium player on the Gem Track that means you get double XP – XP that you can also use to earn crystals for free (but then can only convert into powder which can be traded for cosmetics). Is the current way any better? A raffle ticket is honest in its dishonesty – it’s a 50/50 chance, you win or you don’t, right?

I don’t think it matters whether Overwatch 2 has loot boxes anymore. Much like the horse armour, we’ve all moved on from this being an issue. This is now a live-service world, and we’re stuck here until it dies, or we do. It’s taken a couple of hits this year, but it keeps getting back up. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a chance we win this one.

OpenCritic

Top Critic Rating:
77/100