As much as we know you guys don't like loot boxes - believe us, we don't like them either - we might not have seen the final evolution of the practice just yet. Fortunately, it seems like gamers everywhere are revolting at the latest attempt to milk further cash from gamers by encouraging gambling mechanics through gimping gameplay progression. The game to do it? Star Wars: Battlefront II.
The game is absolutely rammed with extraneous crap that is as far removed from battling the Empire and shooting space lasers as you can imagine. People have been taking a crack at the Origin Trial over the weekend and the swathe of immersion-breaking menu systems and nonsense is staggering.
For starters, Battlefront II features three currencies, one of which you can buy with real money. You use those to pay for boosts, weapons, abilities and character unlocks. Each character, class and vehicle can have up to three "Star Cars" applied to them, and you can apply boost cards too, for some extra perks.
How do you get all those wonderfully unnecessary cards? You roll loot boxes of course. There are three types of them too, which give you crafting parts, which can then be used to make stuff. You get one crate free per day, just to keep you logging in, but that won't be enough to keep you competitive. Exhausted and bored yet? This isn't the half of it.
How do you get loot crates? You can pay for them with thousands of credits which are earned through playing 10s of games, or pay a few dollars to unlock crystals, which give you access to them faster.
That means that when you play Battlefront II, the absolute top-tier players with all the best stuff will absolutely have paid for the privilege. At least for the game's first few months.
You'll still need to play to unlock some of the game's higher-level content, such as heroes and weapons, although you're still unlocking them with credits. You don't automatically get them, you have to get in-game currency and buy Darth Vader. He's $60,000 credits incidentally.
Remember when that happened in the movies? When the Empire needed a boost they brought out their galactic credit cards to buy some better armor for their Storm Troopers?
For god's sake.
Image source: FreeIcons