Loot boxes is a big controversial topic lately within the video game industry. It was often a big seller item that earns the IP owners quite a bit of money from microtransactions. However, there has been a big push back from gamers and even government officials as loot boxes could be considered gambling. Now the ESA with Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony have agreed to make big changes and others are following suit such as Epic Games.
Epic Games is a big name company you’re all likely aware of with their big battle royale hit Fortnite. While Epic Games is having no trouble raking in the money from those that buy their in-game currency V-Bucks and season passes for in-game content, there are loot boxes available for players to purchase money on which are called Llamas. They are now being called X-Ray Llamas as it gives players to see exactly what is in the item before buying them.
To some, this could spoil the fun and element of surprise of what could be inside the loot box. However, this could also save plenty of gamers money from having to pay and risk getting items that they deem not useful. This trend will follow suit for any Epic Games future video game release so it does appear that loot boxes are changing for the better.
Only time will tell if these changes will help sway gamers from overspending on the in-game loot. At any rate, because of these changes happening to loot boxes, it will be curious to see if something else will take its place in order for IP owners to continue earning a profit well after the video game has released into the market.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz