Rocket League developer Psyonix generally does an excellent job of supporting their game and its community, although some have criticized the title for including paid loot boxes (or Crates), particularly given its younger audience. Well, that’s about to change, as it’s been announced by Psyonix and Epic Games (who recently purchased Psyonix/Rocket League) that Crates will be removed from the game sometime later this year…
Here at Psyonix, and Epic Games as a whole, we are dedicated to creating the best possible experience for our players all over the world. In pursuit of that goal, later this year we will remove all paid, randomized Crates from Rocket League, replacing them with a system that shows the exact items you’re buying in advance. This is similar to changes implemented earlier this year by the Fortnite Save the World team. Rocket Pass Premium, DLC Cars, and Esports Shop items will continue to be offered for direct purchase alongside our new system. We will share more information about the removal of Crates, including timelines and roll-out specifics, in the coming months.
A lot of people have some pretty strong feelings about Epic Games, but you have to give them credit for taking the lead when it comes to phasing out loot boxes. As mentioned above, they’ve already removed them from Fortnite and they didn’t wait long to nix them from Rocket League once they had the chance. Hopefully other publishers take note.
Of course, Epic may just see the writing on the wall – various territories have introduced loot box bans, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is looking into them. With an increasing number of games opting for battle passes and other approaches to monetization, it seems the era of the loot box may be coming to an end.
Rocket League is available now on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.
