Sale of in-game content used to feel like the mainstay of mobile and free-to-play titles until a year or so ago. But an increasing number of big budget productions have also started including micro-transactions in the form of loot boxes to tempt players into shelling out money for upgrades within games. Now what is unarguably among the largest game review aggregators has declared war on this trend.
OpenCritic recently tweeted out a message saying that it was going to take a stand against loot boxes. The site is asking users for suggestions on how it can add information on the business model of a game so consumers will know in advance whether or not the featured unlockable content in it can be earned in case they don’t want to pay extra money for in-game purchases.
It’s not the mere inclusion of micro-transactions within certain titles that is rubbing customers the wrong way; but the inability to tell if a loot box offers truly useful content or just cosmetic upgrades. OpenCritic also wants to inform gamers on whether they will be pestered to buy in-game items while playing, or allowed to purchase stuff from a dedicated virtual storefront.
Overall, the idea is to provide clarity on the kind of micro-transactions seeded within titles so players know if they’re laying out the cash for random, game-changing or cosmetic content. It’s probably too late to hope publishers will pledge to stay away from luring consumers with loot boxes even after they’ve paid the full price of a game.
We're going to take a stand against loot boxes. We're looking into ways to add business model information to OpenCritic.
— OpenCritic (@Open_Critic) October 9, 2017
Big titles like Forza Motorsport 7, Destiny 2 and Middle-earth; Shadow of War are just a few of the recent ones to have embraced the micro-transactions system. So the best one can hope for is for companies to be more open while disclosing in-game additions.