Blizzard announced a huge Olympic-themed update for the game this week. The key part of this is a lot of cosmetic items, such as skins, that are limited-time only. These items, unlike existing items, cannot be purchased with credits and can only be collected via special loot boxes that will be around for 3 weeks for the duration of the event.
“This is the first event that we’re trying, and if it’s really cool and successful and you guys like it, we’ll probably have this event run again next summer as well,” director Jeff Kaplan said in a new developer update discussing the Summer Games update.
He described Summer Games as “targeted towards more the light side of Overwatch,” However, some players are not happy with the way Summer Games items are unlocked. Opening one of these loot boxes does guarantee you at least one of these new items, but there is no other way to obtain them other than through loot boxes.
Statistically, a player would have to open more than 100 loot boxes in all, which would require a lot of playtime or a lot of money to buy the loot boxes.
“We want these items to feel extra special and very rare,” Kaplan said. “So we don’t want everyone running around all the time in every single Summer Games item. And we actually don’t expect that all players will get all Summer Games items.”
One thing’s for certain, Blizzard is definitely keeping with their idea of wanting these items to be a novelty.