Overwatch’s lootboxes don’t deserve to be part of the controversy, according to Mike Morhaime. Blizzard’s co-founder and CEO believes there’s “nothing wrong” with Overwatch’s system.
Moira’s on her way in Overwatch patch 1.17.
In an interview with GameInformer at BlizzCon, Morhaime says “I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with crates that give you randomised items. I think that whatever the controversy is, I don’t think Overwatch belongs in that controversy.”
The problems, according to Morhaime, seem to arise from two specific areas. The first of those, as prompted by the interviewer, is a “pay-for-power” system, which Morhaime says is “definitely something we’ve avoided”. The second issue, however, stems from whether or not you can convert the items you get from lootboxes “back into real-world value,” an element which “does not exist in Overwatch loot crates.”
Whether or not you deem Overwatch’s lootboxes acceptable, it can’t be denied they’ve had a significant impact on the industry. Everything from Middle-earth: Shadow of War to Call of Duty: WW2 has come under fire in recent months for the inclusion of microtransactions, and some PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds cosmetics were reportedly selling for hundreds of dollars.