Don’t stack your lootboxes yet! – Lootbox changes

The new lootbox changes will only be effective on boxes purchased post patch

Blizzard has decided to updates their coding on Lootboxes which will reduce the amount of duplicates a player receives, but also increases credits on repeat items. This information was published in the recent Overwatch PTR patch notes which led to huge community hype for the change and increased sales of lootboxes. In an effort to reduce the community outroar over the new lootbox system being “unchanged” (because they bought the boxes prior to the patch”, Blizzard has reminded all players of how their lootbox opening system works.

The official Overwatch Twitter account recently tweeted followers to remind them, the items in lootboxes are generated once they are purchased or earned through level ups, not when opened. This tweet also linked a post by ‘Lylirra’, a community manager which confirmed that “Loot Box contents are generated at the time that they earned or purchased, NOT when they are opened.” While many players already know of this since this system regarding ‘mystery crates’, boxes or groups of items as they are consistent throughout games like Hearthstone, some still fail to realise this. It resulted in mislead players stacking up on Lootboxes awaiting the change, where the new system was expected to soon be implemented on the main servers.

This once again confirms, that holding a large quantity of lootboxes and opening them all at one sitting WILL NOT generate more rare, epic or legendary drops. Since after all, the contents of all the lootboxes are decided once they pop up in your inventory.

Loot Box Updates
We always want the experience of opening an in-game loot box to feel exciting and rewarding, and in our latest patch we’re working to improve that experience in two key ways. First, we’re drastically reducing the amount of duplicates players will receive when opening loot boxes. Second, to compensate for this reduction of duplicate items, we’re also increasing the overall amount of credits players will receive from loot boxes. On average, players should be earning just as many credits, if not slightly more, from loot boxes than they did prior to these changes

Blizzard’s statement on Lootbox changes

Now on to the lootbox changes that have rolled out to the PTR server, which will soon be seen on the normal regional servers. Lootboxes will contain decreased duplicates when opened, however, duplicates will also grant increased gold. This change by Blizzard overall attempts to make the lootboxs more enticing for players who have already own many of the existing skins as they are currently required to purchase much too many crates for a set of new skins. Currently, they are either being forced to purchase the skins solely based on credits or never owning the newly released collection due to the slim chances of actually obtaining a handful of skins from the existing large ocean of items and skins.

While it may likely reduce the profits for Blizzard, since players don’t have to burn an eternal amount of money to obtain skins they do not own and want, it is somewhat of a double edge swords since some may wish to gain more duplicates so they can afford a specific skin, such as a legendary skin which consumes a thousand coins! To compensate for this, duplicates, meaning those who “hatch” a skin, emote etc which they already own, will be given more credits. Obviously, this is a great change for the players as it allows credits to be much more attainable allowing players to more easily buy a skin they actually want.

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