Fashionable free-to-play cell sport Brawl Stars is doing one thing a bit totally different. In an period the place it appears each sport is making an attempt to nickel and dime you with increasingly stuff to purchase, as a substitute it’s eradicating loot containers and all random rewards solely from the sport. It’s one more signal that loot containers are prone to turn out to be a relic of the previous as lawmakers and gamers push again on the random rewards. However that doesn’t imply Brawl Stars gamers are universally glad about their elimination.
Launched in 2019 for telephones and tablets, Brawl Stars combined cute characters with MOBA-like gameplay and a few battle royale parts. The top end result was a enjoyable top-down aggressive motion sport that I performed for weeks and weeks. However since I finished enjoying, tens of millions have continued to get pleasure from it: Brawl Stars has revamped a billion {dollars} in revenue for Supercell and nonetheless has an energetic participant base and neighborhood. Now, Supercell has eliminated all loot containers from the sport, and response to the change is oddly combined.
Introduced in a Brawl Speak video posted final week, Supercell’s newest replace to Brawl Stars has eliminated all random rewards from the sport. These containers had been primarily used to unlock new characters within the sport. Since its launch three years in the past, Brawl Stars has closely featured loot containers as a part of its rewards. However with yesterday’s replace, that’s not the case.
“No extra chances, no extra random rewards, and no extra enjoying the guessing sport once you unlock Brawlers,” mentioned the sport’s lead designer Frank Keienburg in Supercell’s Brawl Speak video.
Yesterday, as a part of this replace, all unclaimed containers had been mechanically opened and all of the rewards got to gamers accordingly. Shifting ahead, Keienburg and Supercell say that every one rewards—together with its battle passes—shall be changed with “totally different, deterministic rewards, a few of that are new to the sport.” Now, gamers have a brand new battle pass-like function, The Starr Street, which lets them unlock all characters without spending a dime through grinding. Gamers can now simply purchase any brawler they need with gems, as a substitute of randomly shopping for dozens of loot containers to perhaps get a particular hero.
“We’re making this variation for just a few causes,” continued Keienburg. “Primarily, shifting away from chances and likelihood, which can make issues extra honest and predictable for you. It additionally offers you clear and thrilling objectives each time you play the sport.”
In fact, there’s additionally the chance that Supercell and different devs are eradicating loot containers as numerous governments all over the world start cracking down on them with proposed new legal guidelines and laws.
Whereas I believe eradicating loot containers is an effective factor and one thing price celebrating—particularly as cell video games proceed to be among the worst offenders with even good video games like Marvel Snap together with predatory purchases of over $100 or extra—the neighborhood response is way much less optimistic. Whereas some gamers appear glad concerning the elimination of random reward crates, others expressed disappointment. The feedback on the Brawl Speak video has gamers rallying towards the devs and demanding containers return to Brawl Stars.
Why? For some evidently the joy of a loot field outweighed the frustration that usually accompanies them. Others steered they now have little curiosity in enjoying the sport since random rewards are being eliminated. (I believe a few of these folks have to cease and assume in the event that they actually like Brawl Stars or similar to pulling a digital lever on a slot machine…) We noticed one thing much like this occur with Overwatch 2’s launch, the place some gamers had been indignant on the elimination of loot containers and demanded they be returned to the sport. And whereas I agree that development in Overwatch 2 sucks for the time being, I’d somewhat Blizzard work out a strategy to repair that doesn’t contain bringing again loot containers, even when it did offer you a number of free ones earlier than.
The fact is that as video games proceed to turn out to be increasingly in style, extra international locations will start investigating the business and the way it makes cash. And loot containers are doubtless by no means to return in vogue so long as so many governments are main crusades to control or outlaw them.